The moving finger

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-..^,

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The moving finger

Uppenheim

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r.

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TZ flOi^ 'Sb

HARVARD
COLLEGp
LIBRARY

VTr- , 'i i

m ';^1

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i

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I

THE MOVING FINGER

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' Sit still," he whispered. " Don't say anything. There
is someone coming."

[Frontispiecb. See p. i66

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THE MOVING
FINGER

BY

E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM

AUTHOK or " TBI IXMT AMBAMAOOB," " THX IIimTBIOrf

With Ittualratiotu by
J. V. McFALL

BOSTON

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

1911

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CopyrtgU, 1910, 1911,
Bt Little^ BmowK, akd CoMPAirr*

AU rights r$$§rved.
Published, May, 1911.

Brinted by
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C,H,8imondBJkCo,,BostontU,S,A, j ^

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**The Moving Finger writes ; and having writ.
Moves on : nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.'*

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CONTENTS

Pbologue — The Dreamer .... 1

I. A Letter Proves Useful .... 11

n. Old Acquaintances 17

m. " Who is Mr. Saton? " 23

IV. A Question of Obliqation .... 82

V. A Morning Walk 46

VI. Pauline Marrabel 54

Vn. An Unwelcome Visitor 61

Vin. An Instance of Occultism .... 67

IX. A Sentimental Talk 74

X. The Scene Changes 80

XI. A Busy Evening 86

XII. A Call on Lady Marrabel .... 97

Xni. Lady Mary's Dileboia l05

XIV. Petty Worries 114

XV. Rochester is Indignant ..... 124

XVI. Plain Speaking 133

XVn. The Great Naudhbim 141

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viii

CONTENTS

CHAFTBB

PMB

xvm.

RoCHESTEB's Ul/miATDM . . .

. 150

XIX.

Tbotxblxs Bbewing

. 158

XX.

FntsT Blood

. 165

XXI.

Afraid!

, 172

XXTT.

Saxon Rbassgbts Himself . . .

178

xxm.

An Unpleasant Encotjntee . .

186

XXIV.

Lois is Obedient

194

XXV.

A Last Warning

202

XXVI.

The Duchess's Dinner Pabtt . ,

209

XXVII.

The Answer to a Riddle . . . ,

215

xxvni.

Spoken from the Heabt . . .

224

XXIX.

The Couba^oe of Desperation .

232

XXX.

A StiBPRisiNa Request ....

239

XXXI.

Between Love and Dutt . . .

. 248

XXXII.

At the FiDQE of the Precipice .

. 255

xxxm.

" You Do Not Believe in Me! "

, 261

XXXIV.

A Woman's Tongue

. 269

XXXV.

On Lois' Bibthdat

. 278

XXXVI.

The Charlatan Unmasked . .

. 284

Epiloqub — The Man ....

. 294

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ILLUSTRATIONS

" Sit still," he whispered. " Don't say anything.

There is someone coming "... Frontispiece
He came to a standstill by the side of the boy P<ige %
" Some water quick, and brandy," Rochester

cried "73

She swayed for a moment, and fell over on

her side " 22«

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THE MOVING FINGER

PROLOGUE

THE DREAMER

THE boy sat with his back to a rock, his knees
drawn up and clasped within fingers nervously
interlocked. His eyes were fixed upon the great
stretch of landscape below, shadowy now, and indistinct,
like a rolling plain of patchwork woven by mysterious
fingers. Gray mists were floating over the meadows and
low-lying lands. Away in the distance they marked the
circuitous course of the river, which only an hour ago
had shone like a belt of silver in the light of the setting
sun. Twilight had fallen with unexpected swiftness. Here
and there a light flashed from the isolated farmhouses.
On the darkening horizon, a warm glow was reflected in
the clouds from the distant town.

The boy, when he had settled down to his vigil, had
been alone. From over the brow of the hill, however, had
come a few minutes ago a man, dressed in loose shooting
clothes, and with a gun under his arm. He came to a
standstill by the side of the boy, and stood there watching
him for several moments, with a certain faintly amused
curiosity shining out of his somewhat supercilious gray
eyes. The newcomer was obviously a person of breeding
and culture — the sort of person who assumes without
question the title of " Gentleman.'* The boy wore ready-

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2 THE MOVING FINGER

made clothes and hobnailed boots. They remained within
a few feet of one another for several moments, without
speech.

" My young friend/* the newcomer said at last, ** you
will be late for your tea, or whatever name is given to
your evening meal. Did you not hear the bell? It rang
nearly half-an-hour ago.''

The boy moved his head slightly, but made no attempt
to rise.

" It does not matter. I am not hungry.''

The newcomer lecmed his gun against the rock, and
drawing a pipe from the pocket of his shooting'<K>at,
commenced leisurely to fill it. Every now and then he
glanced at the boy, who seemed once more to have be-
come unconscious of his presence. He struck a match and
lit the tobacco, stooping down for a moment to escape
the slight evening breeze. Then he threw the match
away, and lounged against the lichen-covered fragment
of stone.

** I wonder," he remarked, " why, when you have the
whole day in which to come and look at this magnificent
view, you should choose to come just at the hour when it
has practically been swallowed up."

The boy lifted his head for the first time. His face
was a little long, his features irregular but not displeas-
ing, his deep-set eyes seemed unnaturally bright. His
cheeks were sunken, his forehead unusually prominent.
The whole effect of his personality was a little curious. If
he had no claims to be considered good-looking, his face
was at least a striking one.

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He came to a standstill by the side of the boy.

[Page 2

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%

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PROLOGUE — THE DREAMER 3

** I come at this hour,*' he said slowly, " because the
view does not attract me so much at any. other time. It is
only when the twilight falls that one can see — prop-
erly/'

The newcomer took his pipe from his mouth.

"You must have marvelous eyesight, my young
friend,'' he remarked. ^ To me everything seems blurred
and uncertain."

"You don't understand!" said the boy impatiently.
" I do not come here to see the things that anyone can
see at any hour of the day. There is nothing satisfying
in that. I come here to look down and see the things
which do not really exist. It is easy enough when one is
alone," he added, a little pointedly.

The newcomer laughed softly — there was more ban-
ter than hiunor in his mirth.

** So my company displeases you," he remarked. " Do
you know that I have the right to tell you to get up, and
never to pass through that gate again? "

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

^^ One place is as good as another," he said.

The man smoked in silence for several moments. Then
he withdrew the pipe from his teeth and sighed gently.

** These are indeed democratic days," he said. " You
do not know, my young friend, that I am Henry Prest-
gate Rochester, Esquire, if you please. High Sheriff of
this county. Magistrate and Member of Parliament,
owner, by the bye, of that rock against which you are
leaning, and of most of that country below, which you
can or cannot see."

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4 THE MOVING FINGER

" Really ! '* the boy answered slowly. " My name i
Bertrand Saton, and I am staying at the Convalescen
Home down there, a luxury which is costing me exactl;
eight shillings a week."

" So I concluded/' his companion remarked. " May '
ask what your occupation is, when in health? '*

" It's of no consequence,*' the boy answered, a littL?
impatiently. ** Perhaps I haven't one at all. Whatever i
is, as you may imagine, it has not brought me any grea
success. If you wish me to go ^"

" Not at all," Rochester interrupted, with a little pro
testing gesture.

" I do not wish to remain here on sufferance," the bo\
continued. " I understood that we were allowed to spen*
our time upon the hills here."

" That is quite true, I believe," Rochester admittec
^^ My bailiff sees to those things, and if it amuses you t^
sit here all night, you are perfectly welcome."

** I shall probably do so."

Rochester watched him curiously for a few seconds.

" Look here," he said, " I will make a bargain wit
you. You shall have the free run of all my lands for e
long as you like, and in return you shall just answer n
one question."

The boy turned his head slightly.

" The question? " he asked.

"You shall tell me the things which you see dow
there," Rochester declared, holding his hand straight oi
in front of him, pointing downward toward the hab
hidden panorama.

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PROLOGUE — THE DREAMER 5

The boj shook his head.

" For other people they would not count,'* he said.
" They are for myself only. What I see would be invis-
ible to you/'

" A matter of eyesight? '* Rochester asked, with raised
eyebrows.

" Of imagination,'* the boy answered. " There is no
necessity for you to look outside your own immediate
surroundings to see beautiful things, unless you choose
deliberately to make your life an ugly thing. With us it
is different — with us who work for a living, who dwell
in the cities, and who have no power to push back the
wheels of life. If we are presumptuous enough to wish
to take into our lives anything of the beautiful, anything
to help us fight our daily battle against the common-
place, we have to create it for ourselves. That is why I
am here just now, and why I was regretting, when I
heard your footstep, that one finds it so hard to be
alone.*'

" So I am to be ordered off ? " Rochester remarked,
smiling.

The boy did not answer. The man did not move. The
minutes went by, and the silence remained unbroken. Be-
low, the twilight seemed to be passing into night with
unusual rapidity. It was a shapeless world now, a world
of black and gray. More lights flashed out every few
seconds.

It was the boy who broke the silence at last, ite
seemed, in some awkward way, to be trying to atone for
his former unsociability.

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6 THE MOVING FINGER

" This is my last night at the Convalescent Home," he
said, a little abruptly. " I am cured. To-morrow I am go-
ing back to my work in Mechesten For many days I shall
see nothing except actual things. I shall know nothing
of life except its dreary and material side. That is why
I came here with the twilight. That is why I am going;
to sit here till the night comes — perhaps, even, I shall
wait until the dawn. I want one last long rest. I want to
carry away with me some absolute impression of life as
I would have it. Down there,*' he added, moving his
head slowly, " down there I can see the things I want — •
the things which, if I could, I would take into my life.
I am going to look at them, and think of them, and long
for them, until they seem real. I am going to create a
concrete memory, apd take it away with me.'*

Rochester looked more than a little puzzled. The boy's
speech seemed in no way in keeping with his attire, and
the fact of his presence in a charitable home.

"Might one inquire once more," he asked, "what
your occupation in Mechester is? "

" It is of no consequence," the boy answered shortly.
** It is an occupation that does not count. It does not
make for anything in life. One must do something to
earn one's daily bread."

" You find my questioning rather a nuisance, I am
afraid," Rochester remarked, politely.

** I will not deny it," the boy answered. " I will ad-
mit that I wish to be alone. I am hoping that very soon
you will be going."

" On the contrary," Rochester replied, smiling, " I am

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PROLOGUE — THE DREAMER 7

much too interested in your amiable conversation. You
see/' he added, knocking the ashes from his pipe, and
leaning carelessly back against the rock, "I live in a
world, every member of which is more or less satisfied. I
will be frank with you, and I will admit that I find satisn
faction in either man or woman a most reprehensible
state. I find a certain relief, therefore, in talking to a per-
son who wants something he hasn't got, or who wants to
be something that he isn't."

" Then you can find aD the satisfaction you want in
talking to me," the boy declared, gloomily. " I am at
the opposite pole of life, you see, to those friends of
yours. I want ever3rthing I haven't got. I am content
with nothing that I have."

" For instance? " Rochester asked, suggestively.

" I want freedom from the life of a slave," the boy
said. " I want money, the money that gives power. I
want the right to shape my own life in my own way, and
to my own ends, instead of being forced to remain a
miserable, ineffective part of a useless scheme of exist-
ence."

**Your desires are perfectly reasonable," Rochester
remarked, calmly. " Imagine, if you please — you seem
to have plenty of imaginative force — that I am a fairy
godfather. I may not look the part, but at least I can
live up to it. I will provide the key for your escape. I
will set you down in the world you are thirsting to enter.
You shall take your place with the others, and run your
race."

The boy suddenly abandoned his huddled-up position^

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8 THE MOVING FINGER

and rose to his feet. Against the background of empty
air, and in the gathering darkness, he seemed thinner
than ever, and smaller.

" I am going,'* he said shortly, " It may seem amus-
ing to you to make fun of me, I will not stay ^*

" Don't be a fool ! " Rochester interrupted. " Haven't
you heard that I am more than half a madman? I am
going to justify my character for eccentricity. You see
my house down there — Beauleys, they call it? At
twelve o'clock to-morrow, if you come to me, I will give
you a sum of money sufficient to keep you for several
years, I do not specify the amount at this moment, I
shall think it over before you come."

The boy had no words. He simply stared at his chance
companion in blank astonishment.

"My offer seems to surprise you," Rochester re-
marked, pleasantly. " It need not. You can go and tell
the whole world of it, if you like, although, as a repu-
tation for sanity is quite a valuable asset, nowadays, I
should suggest that you keep your mouth closed. Still, if
you do speak of it, no one will be in the least surprised.
My friends — I haven't many — call me the most ec-
centric man in Christendom. My enemies wonder how it
is that I keep out of the asylum. Personally, I consider
myself a perfectly reasonable mortal. I have whims, and
I am not afraid to indulge them. I give you this money
on one — or perhaps we had better say two conditions.
The first is that you make a bond fide use of it. When
I say that, I mean that you leave immediately your pres-
ent employment, whatever it may be, and go out into the

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PROLOGUE — THE DREAMER 9

world with the steadfast purpose of finding for yourself
the things which you saw a few minutes ago down in the
valley there. You may not find them, but still I pledge
you to the search. The second condition is that some day
or other you find your way back into this part of the
country, and tell me how my experiment has f ared,*'

The boy realized with a little gasp.

" Am I to thank you? '' he asked.

" It would be usual but foolish,'* Rochester answered.
*^ I need no thanks, I deserve none. I yield to a whim,
nothing else. I do this thing for my own pleasure. The
sum of money which I propose to put into your hands
will probably represent to me what a five-shilling piece
might to you. This may sound vulgar, but it is true. I
think that I need not warn you never to come to me for
more. You need not look so horrified. I am quite sure
that you would not do that. And there is one thing fur-
ther.''

" Yes? '* the boy asked. " Another condition? "

Rochester shook his head.

** No ! " he said. ** It is not a condition. It is just a
little advice. The way through life hasn't been made
clear for everyone. You may find yourself brought up
in the thorny paths. Take my advice. Don't be content
with anything less than success. If you fail, strip off
your clothes, and swim out to sea on a sunny day,* swim
out until your strength fails and you must sink. It is
the pleasantest form of oblivion I know of. Don't live
on. You are only a nuisance to yourself, and a bad in-
fluence to the rest of the world. Succeed, or make your

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10 THE MOVING FINGER

little bow, my young friend. It is the best advice I can
give you. Remember that the men who have failed, and
who live on, are creatures of the gutter.''

" You are right ! *' the boy muttered. " I have read
that somewhere, and it comes home to me. Failure is the
one unforgivable sin. If I have to commit every other
crime in the decalogue, I will at least avoid that one ! "

Rochester shouldered his gun, and prepared to stroll
off.

** At twelve o'clock to-morrow, then," he said. " I
wouldn't hurry away now, if I were you. Sit down in
your old place, and see if there isn't a thread of gold
down there in the valley."

The boy obeyed almost mechanically. His heart was
beating fast. His back was pressed against the cold
rock. The fingers of both hands were nervously buried
in the soft turf. Once more his eyes were riveted upon
this land of shifting shadows. The whole panorama of
life seemed suddenly unveiled before his eyes. More real,
more brilliant now were the things upon which he looked*
The thread of gold was indeed there !

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CHAPTER I

A LETTEB PROVES VBUFTTL

BERTRAND SATON leaned against the stone
coping of the bridge, and looked downwards, as
though watching the seagulls circling round and
round, waiting for their usual feast of scraps. The gulls,
however, were only his excuse. He stood there, looking
hard at the gray, muddy water beneath, trying to make
up his mind to this final and inevitable act of despair.
He had walked the last hundred yards almost eagerly.
He had told himself that he was absolutely and entirely
prepared for death. Yet the first sight of that gray,
cold-looking river, had chilled him. He felt a new and
unaccountable reluctance to quit the world which cer-
tainly seemed to have made up its mind that it had no
need of him. His thoughts rushed backwards. ^ Swim
out to sea on a sunny day,'' he repeated to himself
slowly. Yes, but this ! It was a different thing, this ! The
longer he looked below, the more he shrank from such a
death!

He stood upright with a little shiver, and began — it
was not for the first time that day — a searching inves-
tigation into the contents of his pocket. The result was
uninspiring. There was not an article there which would
have fetched the price of a dose of poison. Then his fin-

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12 THE MOVING FINGER

gers strayed into a breast-pocket which he seldom used,
and brought out a letter, unopened, all grimy, and show-
ing signs of having been there for some considerable
time. He held it between his fingers, doubtful at first
from where it had come. Then suddenly he remembered.
He remembered the runaway horses in the Bois, and the
strange-looking old woman who had sat in the carriage
with grim, drawn lips and pallid face. He remembered
the dash into the roadway, the brief, maddening race by
the side of the horses, his clutch at the reins, the sense of
being dragged along the dusty road. It was, perhaps,
the one physically courageous action of his life. The
horses were stopped, and the woman's life was saved.
He looked at the letter in his hand.

" Why not? '' he asked himself softly.

He hesitated, and glanced downward once more toward
the river. The sight seemed to decide him. He turned his
weary footsteps again westward.

Walking with visible effort, and resting whenever he
had a chance, he reached at last the Oxford Street end
of Bond Street. Holding the letter in his hand, he made
his way, slowly and more painfully than ever, down the
right-hand side. People stared at him a little curiously.
He was a strange figure, passing through the crowds of
well-dressed, sauntering men and women. He was unnat-
urally thin — the pallor of his cheeks and the gleam in
his eyes spoke of starvation. His clothes had been well-
cut, but they were almost in rags. His cap had cost him
a few pence at a second-hand store.

He made his way toward his destination, looking nei-

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A LETTER PROVES USEFUL 23

ther to the right nor to the left. The days had gone
when he found it interesting to study the faces of the
passers-by, looking out always for adventures, amus-
ing himself with shrewd speculations as to the character
and occupation of those who seemed worthy of notice.
This was his last quest now — - the quest of life or death*

He stopped in front of a certain number, and compar-
ing it with the tattered envelope which he held in his
hand, finally entered. The lift-boy, who was lounging in
the little hall, looked at him in surprise.

^^ I want to find Madame Helga,'' the young man said
shortly. "This is number 88, isn't it?*'

The boy looked at him doubtfully, and led the way to
the lift.

'' Third floor,'* he said. " Til take you up."

The lift stopped, and Bertrand Saton found in front
of him a door upon which was a small brass plate, en-
graved simply with the name of Helga. He knocked
twice, and received no answer. Then, turning the handle,
he entered, and stood looking about him with some curi-
osity.

It was a small room, luxuriously but sombrely fur-
nished. Heavy curtains were drawn more than half-way
across the windows, and the room was so dark that at
first he was not sure whether it was indeed empty. On a
small black oak table in the middle of the rich green
carpet, stood a crystal ball. There was nothing else un-
usual about the apartment, except the absence of any
pictures upon the walls, and a faint aromatic odor, as
though somewhere dried weeds were being burned.

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24 THE MOVING FINGER

Some curtains opposite him were suddenly thrust
aside. A woman stood there looking at him. She was of
middle height, fair, with a complexion which even in
that indistinct light he could see owed little of its smooth-
ness to nature. She wore a loose gown which seemed to
hang from her shoulders, of some soft green material,
drawn around her waist with a girdle. Her eyes were
deep-set and penetrating.

** You wish to see me? " she asked.

He held out the note.

" If you are Madame Helga," he answered.

She came a little further into the room, looking at
him with a slight frown contracting her pencilled eye-
brows. He had no appearance of being a client.

** You have brought a letter, then? '' she asked.

" My name is Bertrand Saton,'' he explained. ** This
letter was given to me in Paris more than a year ago, by
an elderly lady. I have carried it with me all that time.
At first it did not seem likely that I should ever need
to use it. Unfortunately,'* he added, a little bitterly,
** things have changed."

She took the letter, and tore open the envelope. Its
contents consisted only of a few lines, which she read
with some appearance of surprise. Then she turned once
more to the young man.

" You are the Mr. Bertrand Saton of whom the
writer of this letter speaks? " she asked.

He nodded.

** I am,'' he answered.

She looked him over from head to foot. There was

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A LETTER PROVES USEFUL 15

scarcely an inch of his person which did not speak of
poverty and starvation.

^ You have had trouble,'* she remarked.

** I have," he admitted.

•* The lady who wrote that letter," she said, " is at
present in Spain."

He turned to go.

^^ I am not surprised," he answered. ^^ My star is not
exactly in the ascendant just now."

** Don't be too sure," she said. " And whatever you
do, don't go away. Sit down if you are tired. You don't
seem strong."

**I am not," he admitted. "Would you like," he
added, ** to know what is the matter with me? "

" It is nothing serious, I hope? "

** I am starving," he declared, simply. " I have eaten
nothing for twenty-four hours."

She looked at him for a moment as though doubting
his words. Then she moved rapidly to a desk which stood
in a comer of the room.

" You are a very foolish person," she said, " to allow
yourself to get into such a state, when all the time you
had this letter in your pocket. But I forgot," she added,
unlocking the desk. "You had not read it. You had
better have some money to buy yourself food and clothes,
and come here again."

"Food and clothes!" he repeated, vaguely. "I do
not understand."

She touched the letter with her forefinger.

" You have a very powerful friend here," she said. " I

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i6 THE MOVING FINGER

am told to give you whatever you may be in need of,
and to telegraph to her, in whatever part of the world
she may be, if ever you should present this letter.'*

Saton began to laugh softly.

** It is the turn of the wheel,'* he said. ** I am too
weak to hear any more. Give me some money, and I will
come back. I miist eat or I shall faint."

She gave him some notes, and watched him curiously
as he staggered out of the room. He forgot the lift, and
descended by the stairs, unsteadily, like a drunken per-
son, reeling from the banisters to the wall, and back
again. Out in the street, people looked at him curiously
as he turned northward toward Oxford Street. His eyes
searched the shop-windows. He hurried along like a man
feverishly anxious to make use of his last stint of
strength. He was in search of food !

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CHAPTER n

OIJ> ACQTJAINTANCB8

ROCHESTER was walking slowly along the
country, lane which led from the main road to
Beauleys, when the hoot of a motor overtaking
him caused him to slacken his pace and draw in close
to the hedge-side. The great car swung by, with a cov-
ered top ui>on which was luggage, a chauffeur, immacu-
late in dark green livery, and inside, two people. Roches-
ter caught a glimpse of them as they passed by — the
woman, heavily muffled up notwithstanding the warm
afternoon, old and withered ; the man, young, with dark,
sallow complexion, and thoughtful eyes. They were gone
like a flash. Yet Rochester stood for a moment in the
road looking after them, before he turned into a field
to escape the cloud of dust. The man's face was peculiar,
and strangely enough it was familiar. He racked his
brains in vain for some clue to its identity — searched
every comer of his m^nory without success. Finally,
with a little shrug of his shoulders, he dismissed* the sub-
ject.

He was soon to be reminded of it, though, for when
he reached home, he was told at once that a gentleman
was waiting to see him in the study. Then Rochester,
with a little gasp of surprise, recalled that likeness which

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z8 THE MOVING FINGER

had puzzled him so much. He knew who his visitor was !
He walked toward the study, filled with a curious —
perhaps, even, an ominous sense of excitement ! . • •

They were face to face in a few seconds. The man was
unchanged. The boy alone was altered. Rochester's hair
was a little grayer, perhaps, but his face was still smooth.
His out-of-door life and that wonderful mouth of his,
with its half humorous, half cynical curve, still kept his
face young. To the boy had come a change much more
marked and evident. He was a boy no longer — not even
a youth. He carried himself with the assured bearing of
a man of the world. His thick black hair was carefully
parted. His clothes bore the stamp of Saville Row. His
face was puzzling. His eyes were still the eyes of a
dreamer, the eyes of a man who is content to be rather
than to do. Yet the rest of his face seemed somehow to
have suffered. His cheeks had filled out. His mouth and
expression were no longer easy to read. There were
things in his face which would have puzzled a physiog-
nomist.

Rochester had entered the library and closed the door
behind him. He nodded toward the man who rose slowly
to greet him, but ignored his outstretched hand.

** I am sure that I cannot be mistaken,'* he said. " It
is my young friend of the hillside."

** It is he," Saton answered. ** I scarcely expected to
be remembered."

** One sees so few fresh faces," Rochester murmured.
**You have kept the condition, then? I must confess
that I am glad to see you. I shall hope that you will have

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OLD ACQUAINTANCES 29

a great deal that is interesting to tell me. At any rate,
it is a good sign that you have kept the condition/'

" I have kept the condition/' Saton answered. " I was
never likely to break it. I have wandered up and down
the world a good deal during the past five years, and I
have met many strange sorts of people, but I have never
yet met with philanthropy on such a unique scale as
yours.'*

**Not philanthropy, my young friend," Rochester
murmured. ^ I had but one motive in making you that
little gift — curiosity pure and simple."

"Forgive me," Saton remarked. "We will call it a
loan, if you do not mind. I am not going to offer you
any interest. The five hundred pounds are here."

He handed a little packet across to Rochester, who
slipped it carelessly into his pocket.

" This is romance indeed I " he declared, with some-
thing of the old banter in his tone. " You are worse than
the industrious apprentice. Have I, by chance, the pleas-
ure of speaking to one of the world's masters — a mil-
lionaire? "

The young man laughed. His laugh, at any rate, was
not unpleasant.

" No ! " he said. " I don't suppose that I am even
wealthy, as the world reckons wealth. I have succeeded
to a certain extent, although I came very, very near to
disaster. I have made a little money, and I can make
more when it is necessary."

"Your commercial instincts," Rochester remarked,
** have not been thoroughly aroused, then? "

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20 THE MOVING FINGER

The young man smiled.

" Do I need to tell you," he asked, ** that great wealth
was not among the things I saw that night? "

" That was a marvelous motor-car in which you
passed me," remarked the other.

" It belongs to the lady," Saton said, " who brought
me down from London."

Rochester nodded.

" It will be interesting to me," he remarked, " later
on, to hear something of your adventures. To judge by.
your appearance, and your repayment of that small
amount of money, you have prospered."

" One hates the word," Saton murmured, with a sud-
den frown upon his forehead. ** I suppose I must admit
that I have been fortunate to some extent. I axn able to
repay my debt to you."

"That," Rochester interrupted, "is a trifle. It was
not worth considering. In fact I am rather disappointed
that you have paid me back."

" I was forced to do it," Saton answered. " One can-
not accept alms."

Rochester eyed his visitor a little thoughtfully.

** A platitude merely," he said. ** One accepts alms
every day, every moment of the day. One goes about the
world giving and receiving. It is a small point of view
which reckons gold as the only means of exchange."

The young man bowed.

" I am corrected," he said. " Yet you must admit that
there is something different in the obligation which is
created by money."

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OLD ACQUAINTANCES az

" Mine, I fear,'* Rochester answered, " is not an ana-
lytic mind. A blunt regard to truth has always been
one of my characteristics. Therefore, at the risk of in-
delicacy, I am going on to ask you a question. I found
you on the hillside, a discontented, miserable youth, and
I did for you something which very few sane people
would have been inclined even to consider. Years after-
wards — it must be nearly seven, isn't it? — you return
me my money, and we exchange a few polite platitudes.
I notice — or is it that I only seem to notice — on your
jMirt an entire lack of gratitude for that eccentric action
of mine. The discontented boy has become, presumably,
a prosperous citizen of the world. The two are so far
apart, perhaps — — '*

Saton threw out his hands. For the first time, there
flashed into his face something of the boy, some trace of
that more primitive, more passionate hold upon life. He
abandoned his measured tones^ his calm, almost studied
bearing.

" Gratitude ! '* he interrupted. ** I am not sure that I
feel any ! In those days I had at least dreams. I am not
sure that it was not a devilish experiment of yours to
send me out to grope my way amongst the mirages. You
were a man of the world then. You knew and understood.
You knew how bitter a thing life is, how for one who
climbs, a thousand must fall. X am not sure,'' he re-
peated, with a little catch in his throat, " that I feel any
gratitude."

Rochester nodded thoughtfully. He was not in the
least annoyed.

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M THE MOVING FINGER

" You interest me,** he murmured. " From what you
say, I gather that your material prosperity has been
somewhat dearly bought."

" There isn't much to be wrung from life," Saton an-
swered bitterly, " that one doesn't pay for."

** A little later on," Rochester said, ** it will give me
Tery much pleasure to hear something of your adven-
tures. At present, I fear that I must deny myself that
pleasure. My wife has done me the honor to make me
one of her somewhat rare visits, and my house is conse-
quently full of guests."

**I will not intrude," the young man answered, ris-
ing. ^ I shall stay in the village for a few days. We may
perhaps meet again."

Rochester hesitated for a moment. Then the corners
of his mouth twitched. There was humor in this situa-
tion, after all, and in the thing which he proposed to
himself.

" You must not hurry way," he said. " Come and be
introduced to some of my friends."

If Rochester expected any hesitation on the part of
his visitor, he was disappointed. The young man seemed
to accept the suggestion as the most natural in the world.

** I shall be very glad," he said calmly. " I shall be in-
terested, too, to meet your wife. At the time when I had
the pleasure of seeing you before, you were, I believe,
immarried."

Rochester opened the door, and led the way out into
the hall without a word.

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R'

CHAPTER in

**WHO IS MB. BATON?**

C C "f^ EALLY, Henry,*' Lady Mary Rochester said
to her husband, a few minutes before the
dinner-gong sounded, ** for once you have
been positively useful. A new young man is such a
godsend, and Charlie Peyton threw us over most abom-
inably. So mean of him, too, after the number of times
I had him to dine in Grosvenor Square.**

"He's gone to Ostend, I suppose.**

Lady Mary nodded.

** So foolish ! ** she declared. " He hasn*t a shilling in
the world, and he never wins anything. He might just
as well have come down here and made himself agreeable
to Lois.**

^^Matchmaking again?" Rochester asked.

She shook her head.

"What nonsense! Charlie is one of my favorite
young men. I am not at all sure that I could spare him,
even to Lois. But the poor boy must marry someone!
I don't see how else he is to live. By the bye, who is your
prot^g^? **

Rochester, who was lounging in a low chair in his
wife's dressing-room, looked thoughtfully at the tip of
his patent shoe.

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94 THE MOVING FINGER

" I haven't the faintest idea/' he declared.

His wife frowned, a little impatiently.

" You are so extreme," she protested. " Of course
you know something about him. What am I to tell peo-
ple? They will be sure to ask.'*

" Make them all happy," Rochester suggested. " Tell
Lady Blanche that he is a millionaire from New York,
and Lois that he is the latest thing in Spring poets.
They probably won't compare notes imtil to-morrow, so
it really doesn't matter."

" I wish you could be serious for five minutes," Lady
Mary said. ** You really are a trial, Henry. You seem to
see everything from some quaint point of view of your
own, and to forget all the time that there are a few other
people in the world whose eyesight is not so distorted.
Sometimes I can't help recdizing how fortunate it is that
we see so little of one another."

** I can scarcely be expected to agree with you,"
Rochester answered, with an ironical bow. " I must try
and mend my ways, however. To return to the actual
subject under discussion, then, I can really tell you very
little about this young man."

" You can tell me where he comes from, at any rate,"
Lady Mary remarked.

Rochester shook his head.

" He comes from the land of mysteries," he declared.
^* I really am ashamed to be so disappointing, but I only
met him once before in my life."

Lady Mary sighed gently.

** It is almost a relief," she said, " to hear you admit

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"WHO IS MR. SATON?'* as

that you have seen him before at all. Please tell me
where it was that you met," she added, studying the ef-
fect of a tiara upon her splendidly coiffured hair.

" I met him,*' Rochester answered, ** sitting with his
back to a rock on the top of one of my hills/'

"What, you mean here at Beauleys?*' Lady Mary
asked.

" On Beacon Hill," her husband assented. ** It was
seven years ago, and as you can gather from his present
appearance, he was little more than a boy. He sat there
in the twilight, seeing things down in the valley which
did not and never had existed — seeing things that never
were bom, you know* — things for which you stretch
out your arms, only to find them float away. He was
quite young, of course."

Lady Mary turned around.

** Henry ! " she exclaimed.

" My dear? "

^^ You are absolutely the most irritating person I ever
attempted to live with ! "

" And I have tried so hard to make myself agreeable,"
he sighed:

**You are one of those uncomfortable people," she
declared, " who loathe what they call the obvious, and
adore riddles. You would commit any sort of mental
gymnastic rather than answer a plain question in a
straightforward manner."

** It is perfectly true," he admitted. " You have such
insight, my dear Mary."

"I am to take it, then," she continued, "that you

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36 THE MOVING FINGER

know absolutely nothing about your prot6g6? You
know nothing, for instance, about his family, or his
means?''

** Absolutely nothing,'* he admitted ** He has an un-
common name, but I believe that I gathered from him
once that his parentage was not particularly exalted."

** At least," she said, with a little sigh, ** he is quite
presentable. I call him, in fact, remarkably good-look-
ing, and his manners leave nothing to be desired. He has
lived abroad, I should think."

** He may have lived anywhere," Rochester admitted.

** Well, m have him next me at dinner," she declared.
^^ I daresay I shall find out all about him pretty soon.
Come, Henry, I am quite sure that everyone is down.
You and I play host and hostess so seldom that we have
forgotten our manners."

They descended to the drawing-room, and Lady Mary
murmured her apologies. Everyone, however, seemed too
absorbed to hear them. They were listening to Saton, who
was standing, the centre of a little group, telling stories.

** It was in Buenos Ayres," Rochester heard him con-
clude, amidst a ripple of laughter. " I can assure you
that I saw the incident with my own eyes."

Lois Champneyes — an heiress, pretty, and Roches-
ter's ward — came floating across the room to them.
She wore a plain muslin gown, of simpler cut than was
usually seen at Lady Mary's house-parties, and her com-
plexion showed no signs whatever of town life. Her hair
— it was bright chestnut color, merging in places to
golden — was twisted simply in one large coil on the top

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**WHO IS MR. SATON?'* 27

of her head. She wore no jewebry, and she had very
much the appearance of a child just escaped from the
schoohroonu

^^ Mary," she exclaimed, drawing her hostess on one
side, " you must send me in with Mr. Saton ! He is per-
fectly charming, and isn't it a lovely name? Do tell me
who he is, and whether I may fall in love with him.**

Lady Mary nodded.

" My dear child,*' she said, ** I shall do nothing of the
sort. You are not nearly old enough to take care of
yourself, and we know nothing about this young man at
all. Besides, I want him for myself."

** You are the most selfish hostess I ever stayed with,**
Lois declared, turning away with a little pout. ** Never
mind ! I'll make him talk to me after dinner."

"Is your friend in the diplomatic service?" Lord
Penarvon asked Rochester. ** He is a most amusing fel-
low."

" Not at present, at any rate," Rochester answered.
** I really forget what he used to do when I met him first.
As a matter of fact, I have seen very little of him lately."

A servant announced dinner, and they all trooped across
the hall a little informally. It was only a small party,
and Lady Mary was a hostess whose ideas were distinctly
modem. Conversation at first was nearly altogether gen-
eral. Saton, without in any way asserting himself, bore
at lefiust his part in it. He spoke modestly enough, and
yet everything he said seemed to tell. From the first, the
dinner was a success.

Rochester found himself listening with a curiosity for

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28 THE MOVING FINGER

which he could not wholly account, to this young man,
seated only a few feet away. His presence was so decid-
edly piquant. It appealed immensely to his sense of
humor. Baton's appearance was in every respect irre-
proachable. His tie was perfectly tied, his collar of the
latest shape. His general appearance was that of an ex-
ceedingly smart young man about town. The only sign
of eccentricity which he displayed was an unobtrusive
eyeglass, suspended from his neck by a narrow black
ribbon, and which he had only used to study the menu.

Rochester looked at him across the white tablecloth,
with its glittering load of silver and glass, its perf vuned
banks of pink blossoms, and told himself that one at least
of his somewhat eccentric experiments had borne strange
fruit. He thought of that night upon the hillside, the
boy's passionate words, his almost wild desire to realize,
to turn into actual life, the fantasies which were then
only the creation of his fancy. How far had he realized
them, he wondered? What did this alteration in his ex-
terior denote? From a few casual and half-forgotten
inquiries, Rochester knew that he was the son, or rather
the orphan of working-people in the neighboring town.
There was nothing in his blood to make him in any way
the social equal of these men and women amongst whom
he now sat with such perfect self-possession. Rochester
found himself watching for some traces of inferior
breeding, some lapse of speech, some signs of an innate
lack of refinement. The absence of any of these things
puzzled him. Saton was assured, without being over-con-
fident. He spoke of himself only seldom. It was marvel-

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••WHO IS MR. SATON?*' ag

ous how often he seemed to avoid the use of the first
person. He seemed, too, modestly unconscious of the
fact that his conversation was in any way more interest-
ing than the speech of those by whom he was surrounded.

^ You seem to have lived,*' his hostess said to him once,
•• in so many countries, Mr. Saton. Are you really only
as old as you look? "

** How can I answer that,'* he asked, smiling, ** except
by telling you that I am twenty-five,"

*• You must have commenced to live in your peram-
bulator,'* she declared.

" I have lived nowhere," he answered. " I have visited
many places, and travelled through many lands, but life
with me has been a search."

** A search? " she murmured, dropping her voice a lit-
tle, and intimating by the slight movement of her head
towards him, that their conversation was to become a
tete-d-tete. " Well," she continued, " I suppose that life
is that with all of us, only you see with us poor frivolous
people, a search means nearly always the same thing —
a search for amusement or distraction, whichever you
choose to call it."

Saton shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"Different things amuse different people," he re-
marked. " My search, I will admit, was of a different
order."

•• It is finished? " she asked.

•* It will never be finished," he answered. " The man
who finds what he seeks," he added, raising his dark eyes
to hers, •• as a rule has fixed his ambitions too low."

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30 THE MOVING FINGER

** Speaking of ambitions, Mr. Saton,'' Lord Penarron
asked across the table, ** are you interested in politics? "

" Not in the least," Saton answered frankly. " There
seem to me to be so many other things in life better worth
doing than making fugitive laws for a dissatisfied coun-
try."

" Tell me,'' his hostess asked, " what do you yoursdf
consider the things better worth doing? ''

Saton hesitated. For the fiist time, he seemed scarcely
at his ease. He glanced across at Rochester, and down at
his plate.

" The sciences," he answered, quietly. ** There are
many torches lit which need strong hands to carry them
forward."

Lois leaned across the table. As yet she had scarcely
spoken, but she had listened intently to his every word.

" Which of the sciences, Mr. Saton? " she asked, a lit-
tle breathlessly.

He smiled at her, and hesitated a moment before an-
swering.

"There are so many," he said, "which are equally
fascinating, but I think that it is always the least known
which is the most attractive. When I spoke, I was really
thinking of one which many people would scarcely
reckon amongst the orthodox list. I mean occultism."

There was a little murmur of interest. Saton himself,
however, deliberately turned the conversation. He re-
verted to a diplomatic incident which had come to his
notice when in Brazil, and asked Lord Penarvon's opin-
ion concerning it.

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"WHO IS MR. SATON?*' 31

** By the bye,'* the latter asked, as their conversation
drew toward a close, " how long did you say that you
had been in England, Mr. Saton? "

" A very short time,'* Saton answered, with a faint
smile. ** I have been something of a wanderer for years."

^^ And you came from? " Rochester asked, leaning a
little forward.

Saton smiled as his eyes met his host's. He hesitated
perceptibly.

^^ I came from the land where the impossible sometimes
happens," he answered, lightly, **the land where one
dreams in the evening, and is never sure when one wakes
in the morning that one's dreams have not become solid
things."

Lady Mary sighed.

^ Can one get a Cook's ticket? " she asked.

** Can one get there by motor-car, or even flying-
machine? " Lois demanded. ^^ I would risk my bones to
find my way there."

Saton laughed.

** Unfortunately," he said, " there is a different path
for every one of us, and there are no signposts."

Lady Mary sighed as she rose to her feet. She nodded
a friendly little farewell to her interesting neighbor.

** Then we may as well go and have some really good
bridge," she said, "until you men take it into your
heads to come and disturb us."

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CHAPTER IV

A QUESTION OF 0BLI6ATI0K

AFTERNOON tea was being served in the hall
at Beauleys on the day after Saton's arrival.
Saton himself was sitting with Lois Champ-
neyes in a retired comer.

^^ I was going to ask you," he remarked, as he handed
bar some cakes, ^^ about Mr. Rochester's marriage. He
was a bachelor when I — first met him."

^ Were you very intimate in those days? " she asked.

** Not in the least," he answered, with a faint reminis-
cent smile.

**Then you never heard about the romance of his
life? " she asked.

Saton shook his head.

** Never," he declared. ** Nor should I ever have asso-
ciated the word with Mr. Rochester."

She sighed gently.

" I daresay he was very different in those days,*' she
said. " Before the Beauleys property came to him, he
was quite poor, and he was very much in love with the
dearest woman — Pauline Hambledon. It was impossible
for them to marry — her people wouldn't hear of it —
so he went abroad, and she married Sir Walter Marrabel !
Such a pig ! Everyone hated him. Then old Mr. Stephen

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A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION 33

Rochester died suddenly, without a will, and all this
property came to Henry ! '*

** And then he married, I suppose? *' Saton remarked.

^* I was going to tell you about that,'' Lois continued.
^^ Mary was a niece of Stephen Rochester, and a daugh-
ter of the Marquis of Haselton, who was absolutely
bankrupt when he died. Stephen Rochester adopted her,
and then died without leaving her a farthing ! So there
she was, poor dear, penniless, and Henry had every-
thing. Of course, he had to marry her.'*

" Why not? *' Saton remarked. " She is quite charm-
ing.''

^' Yes ! But this is the tantalizing part of it," Lois
continued. ** They hadn't been married a year when Sir
Walter Marrabel died.^ Pauline is a widow now. She is
coming here in a few days. I do hope you will meet her."

** This is quite interesting," Saton murmured. " How
do Lady Mary and her husband get on? "

Lois made a little grimace.

** They go different ways most of the time," she an-
swered. ** I suppose they're only what people call mod-
em. Isn't that a motor horn? " she cried out, springing
to her feet. " I wonder if it's Guerdie ! "

**For a man who has been a great lawyer," Lord
Penarvon declared, ^^ Guerdon is the most uncertain and
unpunctual of men. One never knows when to expect
him."

** He was to have arrived yesterday," Lady Mary re-
marked. " We sent to the station twice."

** I suppose," Rochester said, " that even to gratify

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34 THE MOVING FINGER

the impatience of an expectant house-party, it is not
possible to quicken the slow process of the law. If you
look at the morning papers, you will see that he was at
the Central Criminal Court, trying some case or other,
all day yesterday. The man who pleads * Not Guilty,'
and who pays for his defence, expects to be heard out to
the bitter end. It is really only natural."

Saton, who had been left alone in his comer, rose sud-
denly to his feet and came into the circle. He handed
his cup to his hostess, and turned toward Rochester.

"You were speaking of judges?'* he remarked.

Rochester nodded.

" In a few moments,'* he said, ** you will probably
meet the cleverest one we have upon the English bench.
Without his robe and wig, some people find him insig^
nificant. Personally, I must confess that I never feel his
eyes upon me without a shiver. They say that he never
loses sight of a fact or forgets a face."

" And what is the name of this wonderful person? "
Saton asked.

** Lord Guerdon," Rochester answered. '' Even though
you have spent so little time in England of late years,
you must have heard of him."

The curtains wefe suddenly thrown aside, and a foot-
man entered announcing the newly-arrived guest. From
the hall beyond came the sound of a departing motor,
and the clatter of luggage being brought in. The foot-
man stood on one side.

" Lord Guerdon ! " he announced.

Lady Mary held out her hands across the tea-tray.

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A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION 35

Rochester came a few steps forward. Everyone ceased
their conversation to look at the small, spare figure of
the man who, clad in a suit of travelling clothes of gray
tweed, and cut after a somewhat ancient pattern, in-
significant-looking in figure and even in bearing, yet car-
ried something in his clean-shaven, wrinkled face at once
impressive and commanding. Everyone seemed to lean
forward with a little air of interest, prepared to ex-
change greetings with him as soon as he had spoken to
his host and hostess. Only Saton stood quite still, still
as a figure turned suddenly into stone. No one ap-
peared to notice him, to notice the twitching of his fin-
gers, the almost ashen gray of his cheeks — no one ex-
cept the girl with whom he had been talking, and whose
eyes had scarcely left his. He recovered himself quickly.
Whoi Rochester turned towards him, a moment or so
later, he was almost at his ease.

** You find us fidl old friends. Guerdon,'' he said, " ex-
cept that I have to present to you my friend Mr. Saton.
Saton, this is Lord Guerdon, whose caricature you have
doubtless admired in many papers, comic and otherwise,
and who I am happy to assure you is not nearly so ter-
rible a person as he might seem from behind that om-
inous iron bar.''

Saton held out his hand, but almost immediately with-
drawing it, contented himself with a murmured word,
and a somewhat low bow. For a second the judge's eye-
brows were upraised, his keen eyes seemed to narrow.
He made no movement to shake hands.

** I am very glad to meet Mr. Saton," he said slowly.

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36 THE MOVING FINGER .^

" By the bye,'' he continued, after a second's pause, " is
this our first meeting? I seem to have an idea — your % '
face is somehow familiar to me." ^■

There were few men who could have faced the piercing • >
gaze of those bright brown eyes, set deep in the withered . * ■
face, without any sign of embarrassment. Yet Saton ^
smiled back pleasantly enough. He was completely at his
ease. His face showed only a reasonable amount of
pleasure at this encounter with the famous man.

" I am afraid, Lord Guerdon," he said, " that I can-
not claim the privilege of any previous acquaintance.
Although I am an Englishman, my own country has seen
little of me during the last few years."

" Come and have some tea at once," Lady Mary in-
sisted, looking up at the judge. ** I want to hear all
about this wonderful Clancorry case. Oh, I know you're
not supposed to talk about it, but that really doesn't
matter down here. You shall have a comfortable chair
by my side, and some hot muffins."

Saton went back to his seat by the side of Lois Champa
neyes, carrying his refilled teacup in his hand. She /.•
looked at him a little curiously. •. f-

** Tell me," she said, " have you really never met Lord
Guerdon before?"

" Never in my life," he answere2^

" Did he remind you of anyone? " she asked.

" It is curious that you should ask that," Saton re-
marked. *' In a way he did."

" I thought so," she declared, with a little breath of
relief. " That was it, of course. Do you know how you

i

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A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION 37

IcH^ed when you first heard his name —* when he came
into the room? ^

** I have no idea,'* he answered. ** I only know that
when I saw him enter, it gave me ahnost a shock. He re-
minded me most strangely of a man who has been dead
for many years. I could scarcely take my eyes off him
at first.'*

" I will tell you,^ she said, ** what your look reminded
me of. Many years before I was out — in my mother's
time — there was a man named Mallory who was tried
for murder, the murder of a friend, who everyone knew
was his rival. Well, he got off, but only after a long
trial, and only by a little weakness in the chain of evi-
dence, which even his friends at the time thought provi-
dential. He went abroad for a long time. Then he came
into a title and returned to England. He was obliged
to take up his position, and people were willing enough
to forget the past. He opened his London house, and
accepted every invitation which came. At the very first
party he went to, he came face to face with the judge
who had tried him. My mother was there. I remember
she told me how he looked. It was foolish of me, but I
thought of it when I saw you just then."

Saton smiled sympathetically.

" And the end in the story? " he asked.

" The man had such a shock," she continued, ** that he
shut up his house, gave up all his schemes for re-entering
life, left England, and never set foot in the country
again."

Saton rose to his feet.

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38 THE MOVING FINGER

" I see that my host i« beckoning me," he said. ** Will
you excuse me for a moment? '*

Rochester passed his arm through the younger man's.

** Come into the gun-room for a few minutes,'' he said.
^ I want to show you the salmon flies I was speaking of.''

Saton smiled a little curiously, and followed his host
across the hall and down the long stone passage which
led to the back quarters of the house. The gun-room was
deserted and empty. Rochester closed the door.

" My young friend," he said, " if you do not object,
I shoidd like to have a few minutes of plain speaking
with you."

^ I should be delighted," Saton answered, seating him-
self deliberately in a battered old «asy-chair.

** Seven years ago," Rochester continued, leaning his
elbow against the mantelpiece, '^we made a bargain. I
sent you out into the world, an egotistical Don Quixote,
and I provided you with the means with which you were
to turn the windmills into castles. I made one condition
— two, in fact. One that you came back. Well, you have
kept that. The other was that you told me what it was
like to build the castloi of bricks and mortar, which in
the days when I knew you, you built in fancy only."

^^ Aren't you a little allegorical? " Saton asked,
calmly.

•* I admit it," Rochester answered. ** I was very nearly,
in fact, out of my depth. Tell me, in plain words,
what have you done with yourself these seven years? "

** You want me," Saton remarked, " to give an ac-
count of my stewardship."

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A QUESTION OP OBLIGATION 39

"Put it any way you please,'^ Rochester answered
" The fact remains that though you are a guest in my
house, you are a ccHnplete stranger to me."

Satcm smikd.

" You might have thought of that," he said, " before
you a^ed me here«"

Rochester shrugged his shoulders.

** Perhaps," he said, "I preferred to keep up my
re{Hitation as an eccentric person. At any rate, you
must remeidtmr that it was open to me at any moment
to ask you the question I have asked you now."

Saton sat perfectly still in his chair, his eyes ap-
parently fixed upon the ground. All the time Rochester
was watching him. Was it seven years ago, seven years
only, since he had stood by the side of that boy, whose
longing eyes had been fixed with almost passionate in-
tensity upon that world of shadows and unseen things?
This was a different person. With the swiftness of in-
spiration itself, he recognised something of the change
which had taken place. Saton had fought his battle
twice over. He might esteem himself a winner. He might
even say that lb had proved it. Yet there was another
side. This ycmng man with the lined face, and the al-
most unnatural restraint of manner, might well have
takai up the thread of life which the boy had laid down.
But there was a differ^ice. The thread might be the
same, but it was no longer of gold.

Then Saton raised his eyes, and Rochester, who was.
watching him intensely, realized with a sudden con-
vincing thrill something which he had felt from the mo-

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40 THE MOVING FINGER

ment when he had stepped into the library and welcomed
this unexpected visitor. There was nothing left of grati-
tude or even kindly feeling in the heart of this young
man. There was something else which looked out from
his eyes, something else which he did not even trouble
to conceal. Rochester knew, from that moment, that he
had an enemy.

" There are just two things,'* Saton said quietly, ** of
which I should like to remind you. The first is that from
the day I left this house with five hundred pounds in
bank-notes buttoned up in my pocket, I regarded that
sum as a loan. I have always regarded it as a loan, and
I have repaid it.'*

** I do not consider your obligation to me lessened,''
Rochester remarked coldly. ^^ If it was a loan, it was a
loan such as no sane man would have made. You had
not a penny in the world, and I did not even know your
name. The chances were fifty to one against my ever see-
ing a penny of my money again."

** I admit that," Saton answered. " Yet I will remind
you of your own words — • five hundred pounds were no
more to you than a crown piece to me. You gave me the
money. You gave me little else. You gave me no en-
couragement, no word of kindly advice. Gro back that
seven years, and remember what you said to me when
you stood by my side, toying with your gun, and looking
at me superciliously, as though I were some sort of
curiosity which it amused you to turn inside out. — The
one unforgivable thing in life, you said, was failure. Do
you remember telling me that if I failed I was to swim

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A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION 41

out on a sunny day — to swim and swim until the end
came? Do you remember telling me that death was
sometimes a pleasant thing, but that life after failure
was Hell itself? ''

Rochester nodded.

*' I always had such a clear insight into life," he mur-
mured. " I was perfectly right."

*' From your point of view you doubtless were," Saton
answered. *^ You were a cynic and a pessimist, and I find
you now unchanged. I went away with your words ring-
ing in my brain. It was the first poisonous thought
which had ever entered there, and I never lost it. I said
to myself that whatever price I paid for success, success
of some sort I would gain. When things went against
me, I seemed to hear always those bitter, supercilious
words. I could even see the curl of your lips as you
looked down upon me, and figured to yourself the only
possible result of trusting me, an unfledged, imaginative
boy, with the means to carve his way a little further into
the world. Failure ! I wrote the word out of the diction-
ary of my life. Sin, crime, ill-doing of any sort if they
became necessary, — I kept them there. But failure —
no ! And this was your doing. Now you come to ask me
questions. You want to know if I am a fit and proper
person to receive in your house. Perhaps I have sinned.
Perhaps I have robbed. Perhaps I have proved myself
a master in every form of ill-doing. But I have not
failed ! I have paid you back your five hundred pounds.'*

** The question of ethics," Rochester remarked, ** in-
terests me very little if at all. The only point is that

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42 THE MOVING FINGER

whereas on the hillside you were simply a stray unk of
homanity, and the things whidi we said to one another
concerned ourselves only, here matters are a little differ-
ent. In a thoughtless moment, I asked you to become a
guest under my roof. It was, I frankly admit, a mis-
take. I trust that I need not say more.**

** If you will have my tilings removed to the Inn,*'
Saton said slowly —

** No sudi extreme measures are necttsary,** Rochester
answered. ** You will stay with us until to-morrow morn-
ing. After luncheon you will probably find it convcniwit
to tenninate your visit as soon as possible.**

" I shall be gone,** Saton answered, ** before any of
your guests are up. In case I do not see you again
alone, let me ask you a questicm, or rather a favor."

Rochester bowed slightly.

** There is a house below the Convalescent Home —
Blackbird's Nest, they call it," Saton said. " It is empty
now — too large for your keepers, too small for a coun-
try seat. Win you let it to me? "

Rochester looked at him with uplifted eydbrows.

** Let it to you? " he repeated. " Do you mean to say
that after an adventurous career such as I imagine you
have had, you think of settling down, at your age, in a
neighborhood like this? "

" Scarcely that," Saton answered. *' I shall be here
only for a few dayis at a time, at different periods in the
year. The one taste which I share in common with the
boy whom you knew, is a love for the country, especially
this part of it."

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A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION 43

^ You wi^ to lire there alcme? " Rodiester asked.

^ Tl^re is one — other person," Saton answered with
some hesitation.

Rochester sighed gently.

'^ Alas ! " he said. ^* Ii^tmct tells me that that person
will turn out to be of the other sex. If only you knew,
my young friend, what the morals of this neighbor-
hood are, you would understand how fatal your pro-
posal is."

Something that was almost malign gleamed for a mo-
ment in Saton's eyes.

^ It k true," he said, ^ that the person I spoke of is
a woman, but as she is at least sixty years (dd, and can
only walk with the help of a stidc, I do not think that
she would be apt to disturb the m(Hral prejudices of
your friends."

^* What has she to do with you? " Rodiester asked, a
little shortly. ^^Have you found relatives out in the
world, or are you married? "

Saton smiled.

** I am not married," he answered, " and as the lady
in question is a foreigner, there is no question of any
relationship between us. X am, aa a matter of fact, her
adof^ed son."

"You can go and see my agent," Rod^ster an-
swered. " Personally, I shall not interfere. I am to take .
it for granted, then, I presume, that you have nothing
more to tell me concerning yourself? *'

" At present, nothing," Saton answered. " Some day,
perhaps," he added, rising, " I may tell you eyerything.C

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44 THE MOVING FINGER

You see,*' he added, ** I feel that my life, such as it is,
is in some respects dedicated to you, and that you there-
fore have a certain right to know something of it. But
that time has not come yet.'*

Once more there was a short and somewhat inexpli-
cable pause, and once more Rochester knew that he was in
the presence of an enemy. He shrugged his shoulders
and turned toward the door.

**Well,'' he said, "we had better be getting off.
Guerdon is a decent fellow, but he always needs looking
after. If he is bored for five minutes, he gets sulky. If
he is bored for a quarter of an hour, he goes home. You
never met Lord Guerdon before, I suppose? " he asked,
as he threw open the door.

They were men of nerve, both of them. Neither
flinched. Rochester's question had been asked in an ab-
solutely matter-of-fact tone, and Baton's reply was en-
tirely casual. Yet he knew very well that it was only
since the coming of the great judge that Rochester had
suddenly realized that amongst the guests staying in his
house, there was one who might have been any sort of
criminal.

" I have seen him in court," Saton remarked, with a
slight smile, " and of course I have seen pictures 'of him
everywhere. Do not let me keep you, please. I have some
letters to write in my room."

Rochester went back to his guests. His brows were
knitted. He was unusually thoughtful. His wife, who
was watching him, called him across to the bridge table,
where she was dummy.

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A QUESTION OF OBLIGATION 45

" WeU?'' she asked. **What is it?''

Rochester looked down at her. The comers of his
mouth slowly unbent.

** Have you ever heard," he whispered in her ear, ** of
the legend of the Frankenstein? ''

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CHAPTER V

A MOSKIKG WAI.K

M'

((']^ ^Y dear Henry," Lady Mary said, a few
days later, swinging round in her chair
from the writing-table, *' whatever in this
world induced you to encourage that extraordinary per-
son Bertrand Saton to settle down in this part of the
world?"

Rochester continued for a moment to gaze out of the
window across the Park, with expressionless face.

" My dear Mary," he said, ** I did not encourage him
to do anything of the sort."

" You let him Blackbird's Nest," she reminded him.

" I had scarcely a reasonable excuse for refusing to
let it," Rochester answered. " I did not suggest that he
should take it. I merely referred him to my agents. He
went to see old Bland the very next morning, and the
thing was arranged."

** I think," Lady Mary said deliberately, " that it is
one of those cases where you should have exercised a
little more discrimination. This is a small neighbor-
hood, and I find it irritating to be continually running
up against people whom I dislike."

" You dislike Saton? " Rochester remarked, noncha-
lantly.

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A MORNING WALK 47

^ Dislike is periiaps a sixaiig word," fait wife an-
swered. ^^ I distrust him. I disbelieve in hinu And I dis-
like exceedingly the friendship between him and Lois."

Bodiesta- shrugged his dioulders.

^ Does it amount to a friendship? " he asked.

"What else?" his wife answered. **It was obvious
that she was interested in him when he was staying here,
and twice since I haTe met them walking together. I hate
mysterious peo;^. They tell me that he has made Black-
bird's Nest lode like a museum inside, and there is the
most awful okl woman, with white hair and Uadc eyes,
who never leaves his side, they say, when he is at home."

" She is," Rochester remarked, " I presume^ of an age
to disarm scandal? "

" She looks as old as Methuselah," his wife answered,
^^ but what does the man want with sudi a creature at
all?"

" She may be an elderly relative," Rochester sug-
gested.

" Relative? Why, she calls herself the Comtesse some-
body ! " Lady Mary declared. ** I do wish you would
tell me, Henry, exactly what you know and what you do
not know about this young man."

"What I do know is simple enough," he answered.
" What I do not know would, I begin to believe, fill a
volume."

" Then you had better go and see him, and readjust
matters," she declared, a little sharply. " I want Lois to
marry well, and she mustn't have her head turned by this
young man."

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48 THE MOVING FINGER

Rochester strolled through the open French-window
into the flower-garden. He pulled a low basket chair out
into the sun, close to a bed of pink and white hyacinths.
A man-servant, seeing him, brought out the morning pa-
pers, which had just arrived, but Rochester waved them
away.

"Fancy reading the newspapers on a morning like
this ! '* he murmured, half to himself. *' The person who
would welcome the intrusion of a world of vulgar facts
into an aesthetically perfect half -hour, deserves — well,
deserves to be the sort of person he must be. Take the
papers away. Groves," he added, as the man stood by, a
little embarrassed. " Take them to Lord Penarvon or
Mr. Hinckley."

The man bowed and withdrew. Rochester half closed
his eyes, but opened them again almost immediately. A
white clad figure was passing down the path on the other
side of the lawn. He rotised himself to a sitting posture.

" Lois ! " he called out. " Lois ! "

She waved her hand, but did not stop. He rose to his
feet and called again. She paused with a reluctance wHch
was indifferently concealed.

" I am going down to the village," she said.

He crossed the lawn towards her.

" I will be a model host," he said, " and come with
you. It is always the function of the model host, is it
not, to neglect the whole of the rest of the guests, and
attach himself to the one most charming? "

She shook her head at him. ^

" I dare not risk being so unpopular," she declared.

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A MORNING WALK 49

** Really, don't bother to come. It is such a very short
distance."

"That decides me/' he answered, falling into step
with her. " A short walk is exactly what I want. For the
last few days I have been oppressed with a horrible fear.
I am afraid of growing fat ! '*

She looked at his long slim figure, and laughed de-
risively.

" You will have to find another reason for this sud-
den desire for exercise," she remarked.

" Do I need to find one? " he answered, laughing down
into her pretty face.

She shook her head.

** This is all very well," she said, ** but I quite under-
stand that it is my last morning. I know what will hap-
pen this afternoon, and I really do not think that I shall
allow you to come past that gate."

** Why not? " he asked earnestly.

**You know very well that Pauline is coming," she
answered.

The change in his face was too slight for her to notice
it, but there was a change. His lips moved as though
he were repeating the name to himself.

** And why should Pauline's coming affect the situa-
tion?" he asked.

She shook her head.

** You say nice things to me," she declared, looking at
him reproachfully, "but only when Pauline isn't here.
We all know that directly she comes we are no longer any
of us human beings. I wish I were intelligent."

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50 THE MOVING FINGER

'* Don't ! " he begged. " Don't wish anything so fool-
ish. Intelligence is the greatest curse of the day. Few
people possess it, it is true, but those few spend most
of their time wishing they were fools."

" Am I a fool? " she asked.

*' Of course," he answered, ** All pretty and diarm-
ing peoj^ are fools."

" And Pauline? " she asked.

" Pauline, unfortunately, is amongst the cursed," he
answered.

^' That, I suppose," she remarked, ^' is what Imngs
you so close together."

" It is a bond of common suffering," he declared.
** By the bye, who is this ferocHnis-looking i)erson?"

It was Saton who had suddenly turned the comer, and
whose expressicm had certainly darkened for a moment
as he came face to face with the two. He wa*s correctly
enough dressed in gray tweeds and thick walking boots,
but somehow or other his sallow face and dai^, plentiful
hair, seemed to go oddly with his country clothes.

Rochester glanced at his companion, and he distinctly
saw a little grimace. Saton would have passed cm, for
Rochester's nod was of the slightest, but Lois insisted
upon stopping.

'* Mr. Saton," she said, " I have been hearing all sorts
of wonderful things about your house. Whai are you
going to ask us all to tea to see your curiositks? "

Saton looked into Rochester's immovable face.

** Whenever you choose to come," he answered calmly.
" I am nearly always at home in the afternoon, or rather

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A MORNING WALK 51

I shall be after next ThurMky,'' he added, as axi after-
thought. " I am going to town this evening."

*' Going away ? '* she asked, a little blankly.

^ I have to go up to London," he answered, ^* but it
is only for two days."

There was a idiort, uneasy mlence. Rochester pur-
posdy avoided speech. He understood the situation ex-
actly. They had something to say to one another, and
wkhed him away.

*' You won't be able to send me that book, then? " she
asked.

^ I will leave it at the house this afternoon, if I may,"
he answered, half looking toward Rochester.

B^xheaker made no sign. Saton rai^d his cap and
passed on.

^^ Wonderful S3rTinga bosh, that," Rochester remarked,
pointing with his stidc.

*' Wonderful ! " Lois answered.

^^ Quite an ideal village, mine," he continued. ^^ You
see there are crocuses growing out «ven in the roadway."

^ Very pretty ! " she answered.

^ You are not by any diance annoyed with me? "

*' I did not think you were very civil to that poor
young man."

*' Naturally," he answered. ^ I didnt mean to be civil.
I am one of those simple folk who are always annoyed by
the incomprdbensible. I do not understand Mr. Bertrand
Saton. I do not quite und^stand, either, why you should
find him an interesting companion for your morning
walks."

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59 THE MOVING FINGER

^^ You are a hateful person ! '' she declared, as he hdd
open the gate which led back to the Park.

'^ I intend to remain so," he answered drily.

The sound of footsteps coming along the path which
thej had just quitted, attracted his attention mo-
mentarily. He turned round. Lois, too, hesitated.

** I beg your pardon, sir,*' the newcomer said, ** but
can you tell me whereabouts in this neighborhood I can
find a house called Blackbird's Nest? A Mr. Bertrand
Saton lives there, I believe."

Rochester hesitated for a few seconds. He looked
at the woman, summing her up with swift comprehension.
Lois, by his side, stared at her in surprise. She was in-
clined to be stout, and her face was flushed with walking,
notwithstanding an obviously recent use of the powder-
puff. A mass of copper-colored hair was untidily ar-
ranged underneath a large black hat. Her clothes were
fashionable in cut, but cheap in quality. She wore open-
work stockings and high-heeled shoes, which had already
suffered from walking along the dusty roads. While she
waited for an answer to her question, she drew a hand-
kerchief from her pocket, and the perfume of the violet
scented hedge by the side of which they stood, was no
longer a thing apparent.

Rochester, whose hatred of perfumes was one of his
few weaknesses, drew back a step involuntarily.

" If you pass through the village," he said, " Black-
bird's Nest is the second house upon the right-hand side.
It lies a little way back from the road, but you cannot
miss it."

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A MORNING WALK 53

^^ I am sure I am very much obliged/' the lady an-
swered. " If I had known it was as far as this, Pd have
waited till I could have found a carriage. The porter
at the station told me that it was just a step.''

Rochester raised his cap and turned away. Lois walked
soberly by his side for several moments.

** I wonder," she said softly, " what a person like that
could want with Mr. Saton."

Rochester shrugged his shoulders.

*' We know nothing of Saton or his life," he answered.
" He has wandered up and down the world, and I dare-
say he has made some queer acquaintances."

*' But his taste," Lois persisted, ** is so perfect. I
cannot imderstand his permitting a creature like that to
even come near him."

Rochester smiled.

** One does strange things under compulsion," he re-
marked. " I see that they have been rolling the putting
greens. Shall we go and challenge Penarvon and Mrs..
Hinckley to a round at golf? "

She glanced once more over her shoulder toward the
village — perhaps beyond.

** If you like," she answered, resignedly*

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CHAPTER VI

PAUUNE MAEEABEL

THE words which passed between Pauline Mar-
rabel and her host at the railway station
were words which the whole world might have
heard and remained unedified. The first part of their
drive homeward, even, passed in complete silence. Yet if
their faces told the story, Rochester was with the woman
he loved. He had driven a small pony-cart to the sta-
tion. There was no room, even, for a groom behind.
They sat side by side, jogging on through the green
country lanes, until they came to the long hill which led
to the higher country. The luggage cart and the om-
nibus, with her maid and the groom who had driven
down with Rochester, passed them soon after they had
left the station. They were alone in the country lane,
alone behind a fat pony, who had ideas of his own as to
what was the proper pace to travel on a warm spring
afternoon.

More than once he looked at her. Her oval face was
almost devoid of color. There were rings underneath
her large soft eyes. Her dark hair was brushed simply
back from her forehead. Her travelling clothes were of
the plainest. Yet she was always beautiful — more so
than ever just now, perhaps, when the slight hardness

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PAULINE MASRABEL 55

had g«me from her mouth, and the stram had pasaed
from her features.

Bocheater, too, was curiously altered by the change in
the curve of his lips. There was a new smik thare, a new
l^ht in his eyes as they jogged cm between the honey-
sudde-wreathed hedges. Their siknee was even curiously
protracted, but imdemeath the holland apron his left
hand was dasj^ng hers«

'^ How are tlungs with you? ^ she asked softly.

^ About the same/' he answered. ^ We make the best
tif it, you know. Mary amuses herself easily enough.
She has what she wanted — a home, and I have someoae
to entertain my guests. I believe that we are considered
quite a model couple.'*

PauHne sighed.

^^ Hairy," she said, ** it is beautiful to be hare, to be
here with y<m. The days will not seem long enough."

Rochester^ so apt of speech, seemed curiously tongue-
tied. His fingers pressed hers. He made no answer. She
leaned a little forward and looked into his face.

** Wonderful person ! " she declared. " Never a line or
a wrinkle!"

He smiled.

** I live qui^ly," he said. ^ I am out of doors all
day. Excitement of any sort has not touched my life
for many years. Sometkoes I feel that this perfect health
is a torture. Sometimes I am afraid of never growing
old."

She laughed very softly — a dear, familiar sound it
was to him. He turned his head to watch the curve of

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56 THE MOVING FINGER

the lips that he loved, the f amt contraction of her eye*
brows as the smile spread.

" You dear man ! '* she murmured. " To look at you
makes me feel quite passSe.^^

** The Daily Telegraph should reassure you/' he an-
swered. ^^I read this morning that the most beautiful
woman at the Opera last night was Lady Marrabel."

" The DaUy Telegraph man is such a delightful crea-
ture/' she answered. "I do not like reporters, but I
fancy that I must once have been civil to this one by
mistake. Henry, you have had the road shortened. I am
perfectly certain of it. We cannot be there.''

" I am afraid it is the sad truth," he answered. ** You
see they are all having tea upon the lawn."

He touched the pony with his whip, and turning oflF
the main avenue, drew up at the bottom of one of the
lawns, before a sunk fence. A servant came hurrying
down to the pony's head, and together Pauline and he
made their way across the short green turf to where
Lady Mary was dispensing tea. Rochester's face sud-
denly darkened. Seated next to his wife, with Lois on
the other side of him, was Saton !

Lady Mary rose to welcome her guest, and Rochester
exchanged greetings with some callers who had just
arrived. To Saton he merely nodded, but when a little
later Lois rose, and announced that she was going to
show Mr. Saton the orchid houses, he intervened lazily.

" We will all go," he said. " Lady Penarvon is inter-
ested in orchids, and I am sure that Pauline would like
to see the houses."

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PAULINE MARRABEL 57

^^ I am interested in everything belonging to this de-
lightful place," she declared, rising.

Lois frowned slightly. Saton's face remained inscru-
table. In the general exodus Rochester found himself for
a moment behind with his wife.

^^ Did you encourage that young man to stay to tea? '*
he asked. ^' I thought you disliked him so much."

Lady Mary sighed. She was a gentle, fluffy little
creature, who had a new whim every few minutes.

^ I am so changeable," she declared. ^^ I detested him
yesterday. He wore such an ugly tie, and he would
monopolize Lois. This afternoon I found him most inter-
esting. I believe he knows all about the future, if one
could only get him to tell us things."

** Really ! " Rochester remarked politely.

'^ He has been talking in a most interesting fashion,"
continued Lady Mary.

" Has he been telling you all your fortunes? "

** You put it so crudely, my dear Henry," his wife de-
clared. " Of course he doesn't tell fortunes ! Only he's
the sort of person that if one really wanted to know any-
thing, I believe his advice would be better than most peo-
ples'. Perhaps he will talk to us about it after dinner."

** What, is he dining here? " Rochester asked.

" I have asked him to," Lady Mary answered, com-
placently. ** We are short of young men, as you know,
and really this afternoon he quite fascinated us all. The
dear Duchess is so difficult and heavy to entertain, but
she quite woke up when he began to talk. Lady Penar-
von just told me that she thought he was wonderful."

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5S THE MOVING FINGER

^ He seems to have the knack of interesting women,'^
Rochester remarked.

** And therefore^ I suppose,'' Ladj Mary said, ** you
men will all hate him. Never mind, I have dianged my
opinion entirely. I think iiiat he » going to be an ac*
quisition to the neighborhood, and I am going to study
occultism."

Rochester turned away with a barely concealed gri-
mace. He went up to Lois, cahnly usurpmg S«ton*s
place.

** My dear Lois," he said, as they fell behmd a few
paces, ^ so your latest young man has been dmrmin^^
everybody."

^^ He is nice, isn't he? " Ae answered, turning to him
a little impulsively.

•* Marvelously ! " Rochester answered. ** Hatefully
so ! Has he told you anything, by the bye, about him-
self? "

She shook her head.

** Nothing that I can remember," she answered. ** He
is so clever," she added^ enthusiastically, ** and he has ex-
plained all sorts of wonderful things to me. If one had
only brains," she continued, with a little sigh, " there
is so much to learn."

Rochester picked a great red rose and handed it to
her.

" My dear child," he said, ** there is nothing in knowl-
edge so beautiful as that flower. By the bye," he added,
raising his voice to Saton, who was just ahead, **I
thought you were going to London to-day."

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PAULINE MAHRABEL 59

** I have put off my viait until to-morrow," Saton an-
swered. ^^ Your wife has been kind enough to ask me to
dine."

Rochester nodded. He carefully avoided endorsing the
invitation.

" By the bye," he remarked, ** we had the pleasure of
if irecting a lady in distress to your house this morning."

Saton paused for a moment before he answered.

*' I am very mudi obliged to you," he said.

He offered no explanation. Bochester, with a little
shrug of the shoulders, rejoined Pauline. Lady Mary
was called away to receive some visitors, and for the first
time Lois and Saton were alone.

^^ Mr. Rochester has taken a dislike to me," he said
^pittxiy.

Lois was distressed.

" I wonder why," she said. " As a rule he is so indif-
ferent to people."

Saton shook his head a little saidly.

** I cannot tell," he answered. " Certainly I cannot
think of anything I have done to offend him. But I am
nearly always unfortunate. The people whom I would
like to have care about me, as a rule don't."

" There are exceptions," she murmured.

She met his eyes, and looked away. He smiled softly to
himself. Women had looked away from him before like
that!

** Fortimately," he continued, " Lady Mary seems to
be a little more gracious. It was very kind of her to ask
me to dine to-night."

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6o THE MOVING FINGER

** She is always so interested/' Lois said, ** in things
which she does not understand. You talked so well this
afternoon, Mr. Saton. I am afraid I could not follow
you, but it sounded very brilliant and very wonderful."

" One speaks convincingly," he said, ** when one really
feels. Some day, remember," he continued, " we are go-
ing to have a long, long talk. We are going to begin at
the beginning, and you are going to let me help you
to imderstand how many wonderful things there are
in life which scarcely any of us ever even think about.
I wonder ^"

** Well? " she asked, looking up at- him.

** Will they let me take you down to dinner? "

She shook her head doubtfully.

** I am afraid not," she said. " I am almost certain
to go m with Captain Vandermere."

He sighed.

^^ After all," he said, ^* perhaps I had better have
taken that train to town."

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CHAPTER Vn

AN UNWELCOHX VISITOE

SATON was only a few minutes being whirled
down the avenue of Beauleys and up along the
narrow country lane, wreathed with honeysuckle
and wild roses, to Blackbird's Nest. He leaned back in
the great car, his unseeing eyes travelling over the quiet
landscape. There was something out of keeping, a little
uncanny, even, in the flight of the motor-car with its
solitary passenger along the country lane, past the hay
carts, and the villagers resting after their long day's
toil. The man who leaned back amongst the cushions,
with his pale, drawn face, and dark, melancholy eyes,
seemed to them like a creature from another world, even
as the vehicle in which he travelled, so swift and luxu-
rious, filled them with wonder. Saton heard nothing of
their respectful good-nights. He saw nothing of their
doffed hats and curious, wondering glances. He was
thinking with a considerable amount of uneasiness of the
interview which probably lay before him.

The car turned in at the rude gates, and climbed the
rough road which led to Saton's temporary abode. A
servant met him at the door as he descended, a gray-
haired, elderly man, irreproachably attired, whose man-
ner denoted at once the well-trained servant.

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63 THE MOVING FINGER

" There is a lady here, sir," he said — ^^ she arrived
some hours ago — who has been waiting to see you. You
will find her in the morning-room."

Saton took off his hat, and moved slowly down the
Uttle hall.

^^ I trust that I did not make a mistake, sir, in allowing
her to wait? " the man asked. ** She assured me that she
was intimately known to you."

"You were quite right. Parkins," Saton answered.
" I think I know who she is, but I was scarcely expecting
her to-day."

He opened the door of the morning-room and closed it
quickly. The woman rose up from the couch, where she
had apparently been asleep, and looked at him.

" At last ! " she exclaimed. " Bertrand, do you know
that I have been here since the morning? "

" How was I to know? " he answered. " You sent no
word that you were ooming. I certainly did not expect
you."

" Are you glad? " she asked, a little abruptly.

" I am always glad to see you, Violet," he said, put-
ting his arm around her waist and kissing her. " All the
same, I am not sure that your coming here is altogether
wise."

" I waited as long as I could," she answered. ^^ You
didn't come to me. You scarcely even answered my let-
ters. I couldn't bear it any longer. I had to come and
see you. Bertrand, you haven't forgotten? Tell me that
you haven't forgotten."

He sat down by her side. She was a young woman.

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AN UNWELCOME VISITOR 63

and though her face was a little hardoied bj the con-
stant use of cosmetics, she was still well enough looking.

** My. dear Violet,^ he said, " of course I have not for-
gotten. Only <kynt you see how unwise it is of you to
come down here? If she were to know ^*

** She will not know,** the giri interrupted. ** She is
safe in London, and will be there for a week."

^ The servants here might tell her that you have been,"
he suggested.

^ You will have to see to it tiiat they don't," she said.
'^Bertrand, I am so unhappy. When are you coming
back?"

** Very soon," he answered.

* We can spend the evening together, can't we? " she
adced, looking at him anxiously. ^^ My train doesn't go
back imtil nine."

** That is just what we cannot do," he answered.
** You <fid not tell me that you were coming, and I have
to go out to dinner to-night."

" To dinner? Here? " she repeated. " You have soon
made friends." And her face darkened.

" I stayed here when I was a boy," he answered.
** There is someone living here who knew me then."

" Can't you put it off, Bertrand? " she begged. " It
is five weeks since I have seen you. Every day I have
hoped that you would run up, if it was only for an hour.
Bertrand dear, don't go to this dinner. Can't we have
something here, and go for a walk in the country before
my train goes, or sit in your study and talk? There are
so many things I want to ask you about our future."

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64 THE MOVING FINGER

He took her hand and leaned towards her.

" My dear Violet,*' he said, " you must be reasonable.
I dare not offend these people with whom I have prom-
ised to dine, and apart from that, I think it is very un-
wise that I should spend any time at all here with you.
You know what sort of a person it is whom we both
have to consider. She would turn us both into the street
and treat it all as a jest, if it pleased her. I tell you
frankly, Violet, I have been too near starvation once to
care about facing it again. I am going to send you back
to the station in the car now. You can catch a train to
London almost at once."

Her face grew suddenly hard. She looked older. The
light which had flashed into her face at his coming, was
gone. One saw now the irregularities of her complexion,
the over-red lips.

" You dismiss me," she said, in a low tone. ** I have
come all this way, have waited all this time, and you
throw me a kiss out of pity, and you tell me to go home
as fast as I can. Bertrand, you did not talk like this a
few months ago. You did not talk like this when you
asked me to marry you ! "

"Nor shall I talk like it," he answered, **when we
meet once more in London, and have another of our cosy
little dinners. But frankly, you are doing an absolutely
unwise thing in staying here. These people are not my
servants. They are hers. They are beyond my bribing.
Violet," he added, dropping his voice a little, and draw-
ing her into his arms, " donH be foolish, dear. DonH run
the risk of bringing disaster upon both of us. You

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AN UNWELCOME VISITOR 65

wouldn't care to have to do without her now. Nor should
I. It was a little thoughtless of you to come, dear. Do
follow my advice now, and I will try and make it up
to you very soon. I shall certainly be in London next
week."

She rested in his arms for a moment with half closed
eyes, as though content with his words and his embrace.
Yet, as she dis^igaged herself, she sighed a little. She
was willing to deceive herself — she was anxious to do
so — but always the doubt remained !

** Very well, Bertrand,'* she said, " I will go.'*

^^ You will just catch a fast train to London," he said,
more cheerfully. ^^You will change at Mechester, and
you will find a dining-car there. Have you plenty of
money? "

** Plenty, thank you," she answered.

He walked with her out into the hall.

^^ Madame will be so sorry," he said, ^^ to have missed
you. The telegram must have been a complete misun-
derstanding. Till next week, then."

He handed her into the car, and raising her fingers
to his lips, kissed them gallantly.

** To the station, William," he ordered the chauffeur,
*' and then get back for me as quickly as you can."

The car swung off. Saton stood watching it with
darkening face. There was some pity in his heart for
this somewhat pasaSe yoimg person, who had been kind
to him during those first few weeks of his re-entering
into life. He recognised the fact that his swift progress
was unfortunate for her. He even sat for a moment or

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66 THE MOVING FINGER

two smoking a cigarette in fais Tery, luxurious dressing-
room, fingering the gold-topped bottles of his dressing-
case, and wondering what would be the most effectual and
least painful means of coming to an understanding with
her!

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CHAPTER Vm

AN INSTANCE OF OCCULTISM

THE guests at Beaulqrs were all grouped to-
gether in the hall after dinner, the men, and
some of tile women, smoking cigarettes. Cof-
fee and liqueurs were being served from the great oak
sideboard. Lord Guerdon and his host had drawn a lit-
tle apart from the others, at the former's instigation.

*'Your friend Saton — extraordinary name, by the
bye — seems to have struck upon an interesting theme
of conversation,** the judge remarked, a little drily,
glancing across to where Saton stood, surrounded by
most of the other guests.

^ He has trayelled a great deal," Rodiester said, ^ and
he seems to be one of that extravagant sort of persons
who imbibe more or less the ideas of every country.
Chiefly froth, I should imagine, but it gives him plenty
to talk about.'*

The judge nodded thoughtfully.

** His face,'* he declared, " still puzzles me a little.
Sometimes I am sure that I have seen it before. At
others, I find it quite unfamiliar.**

Rochester, who was watching Pauline, shrugged his
shoulders.

**We may as well hear what the fellow is talking

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68 THE MOVING FINGER

about/' he remarked. "Let us join the adoring
throng.'* . . •

" I will tell you one thing which I have realized in the
course of my travels/' Saton was saying as they drew
near. " Amongst all the nations of the world, we Eng-
lish are at once the most ignorant, and the slowest to
receive a new thing. In the exact sciences, we are per-
haps just able to hold our own, but when it comes to the
great imexplored fields, the average English person turns
away with a shrug of the shoulders. * I do not believe ! '
he says stolidly, and that is sufficient. He does not be-
lieve! Since the birth of Time there has been no more
pitiful cry than that."

" One might easily be convinced that the fellow is in
earnest," Rochester whispered.

The judge laid his hand upon his host's shoulder.
There was a curious gleam in those deep-set eyes.

" Let him go on," he said. ** This is interesting. I be-
gin to remember."

" We all have a hobby, I suppose," Saton continued.
" Mine has always been the study of the least under-
stood of the sciences — I mean occultism. I, too, was
prejudiced at first. I saw wonderful things in India, and
my British instincts rose up like a wall. I did not be-
lieve. I refused to believe my eyes. In Egypt, and on
the west coast of Africa, I had the chance of learning
new things, and again I refused. But there came a time
when even I was impressed. Then I began to study. I
began to see that some of those things which we accept
as being wonderful, and from which we turn away with

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AN INSTANCE OF OCCULTISM 69

a shrug of the shoulders, are capable of explanation —
are submissive, in fact, to natural laws. There is not a
doubt that in the generations to come, people will smile
upon us, and pity us for our colossal stupidity/'

" No wise person, my dear Mr. Saton," Mrs. Hinck-
ley remarked, " would deny that there is yet a great deal
to learn in life. But tell us exactly to what you refer? '*

Saton raised his dark eyes and looked steadfastly at
her.

"I mean, madam," he said, "the apprehension of
things happening in the present in other parts, the ap-
prehension of things about to happen in the future..
Our brain we realize, and our muscles, but there is a
subtler part of ourselves, of which we are as ignorant
to-day as our forefathers were of electricity.'*

Lady Mary drew a little sigh.

** This is so fascinating,*' she said. ** Do you really
believe, then, that it is possible to foretell the future? "'

** Why not? " Saton answered quietly. ** The world ia
governed by laws just as inevitable as the physical laws
which govern the seasons. It is only a matter of appre-
hension, a deliberate schooling of ourselves into the
necessary temperament."

** Then all these people in Bond Street — these crys-
tal gazers and fortune-tellers — *^ Lois began eagerly.

" They are charlatans, and stand in the way of prog-
ress," Saton declared, fiercely. "They have not the
faintest glimmering of the truth, and they turn what
should be the greatest of the sciences into buffoonery.
To the real student it is never possible to answer ques-

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70 THE MOVING FINGER

tions to foretell specific things. On the other hand, it is
as sure as the coming of night itself that there are times
when a person who has studied these matters even so
slightly as I myself, can feel the coming of events*"

" Give us an instance," Lady Mary begged. " Tell us
of something that is going to happen."

Saton moved a little back. His face was unnaturally
pale.

"No!" he answered. ** Don't ask me that. Remem-
ber, this is not a game. It might even happen that I
should tell you something terrifying. I am sorry that
I've talked like this," he went on, a little wildly. " I am
sorry that I came here to-night. Before I came I felt it
coming. If you will excuse me, Lady Mary ■-■■■ "

She held out her hands and refused to accept his
adieux.

*^ You shall not go ! " she declared. ** There is some-
thing in your mind. You could tell us something if you
would."

Saton looked around, as one genuinely anxious to e9*
cape. On the outskirts of the circle he saw Rochester,
smiling faintly, half amused, half contemptuous, and by
his side the parchment-like face of Lord Guerdon, whose
eyes seemed riveted upon his.

" My dear Saton," Rochester said, ** pray don't dis*
appoint us of our thrill, after all this most effective pre-
liminary. You believe that you possess a gift which we
none of us share. Give us a proof of it. No one here is
afraid to hear the truth. Is it one specific thing you
could tell? "

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AN INSTANCE OF OCCULTISM 71

** One specific thing/' Saton answered quickly, " about
to happen to one person, and one person only.**

" Is it a man or a woman? '* Rochester asked.

" A man ! '* was the quick reply.

Rochester glanced carelessly around the little circle.

" Come,'' he said, ** the women can have their thrill.
There is nothing to fear. Penarvon here has all the pluck
in the world. Hinckley is a V.C. Captain Vandermere is
a soldier, and I will answer for it that he has no nerves.
Guerdon and I, I am sure, are safe. Let us hear your
gruesome prophecy, my dear Saton, and if it comes true,
we will form a little society, and you shall be our apostle.
We will study occultism in place of bridge. We will be
the founders of a new cult."

Saton pushed them away from him. His face was al*
most ghastly.

" It is not fair, this," he cried. " You do not know
what you are asking. Can't you feel it, any of you others,
as I do? " he exclaimed, looking a little wildly around.
^ There is something else in the room, something else be-
sides you warm and living people. Be still, all of you.'*

There was a moment's breathless silence. Some papers
on the table rustled. A picture on the wall shook. Lady
Mary sat down in a chair. Lois gave a little scream.

^^ There is a slight draught," Rochester remarked,
calmly.

** It is no draught," Saton answered. ** You want the
truth and you shall have it. See, there are five men pres-
ent."--- He counted rapidly with his forefinger. " One
of them will be dead before we leave this room."

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^2 THE MOVING FINGER

Rochester strolled over to the sideboard, and helped
himself to a cigarette.

" Come," he said, " this is going a little too far !
Look at the cheeks of these ladies, Saton. A little melo-
drama is all very well, but you are too good an actor.
Hinckley, and all of you," he said, looking around, " I
propose that we end the strain. Let us go into the bil-
liard-room and have a pool. I presume that the spell will
then be broken,"

Lady Mary shrieked.

" Don't move, any of you ! " she cried. " I am
afraid!"

Rochester laughed softly, and crossed the floor with
Arm footsteps. He stood on the threshold of the door
leading to the billiard-room.

" Come," he said, " I am indeed between life and death,
for I have one foot in one room and one in the other.
Come, you others, and seek safety too."

The women also rose. There was a rush for the door,
a swish of draperies, a little "sob from Lois, who was
terrified. Saton remained standing alone. He had not
moved. His eyes were fixed upon the figure of the judge,
who also lingered. They two wcire left in the centre of
the hall.

" Come, Guerdon," Rochester cried. " You and I will
take the lot on."

Guerdon did not move. He motioned to Saton slightly.

" Young man," he said, " we have met before. I said
so when you first came in. My memory is improving."

Saton leaned forward.

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Some water, quick, and brandy," Rochester cried.

[Pag^e 73

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AN INSTANCE OF OCCULTISM 73

** Be careful, judge,** he said.

" Be careful be d — d ! " the judge answered. ** Roches*
ter, come here. God in Heaven ! "

His left hand went suddenly to his throat. He almost
tore away the collar and primly arranged tie. Rochester
was by his side in a second, and saved him from falling.
His face was white to the lips. A shriek from the women
rang through the hall, and came echoing back again
from the black rafters.

" Some water quick, and brandy," Rochester cried,
tearing open the shirt from the man he was supporting.
" Send for a doctor, someone. Penarvon, you see to that.
Let them take the motor. Keep those d — d women
quiet!'*

The judge opened his eyes.

" I remember him,'* he faltered.

"Drink some of this, old fellow,** Rochester said»
" You'll be better in a moment."

The judge's eyes were closed again. He had suddenly
become a dead weight on Rochester's arm. Vandermere,
who had done amateur doctoring at the war, brought a
pillow for his head. They cut off more of his clothes.
They tried by every means to keep a flicker of life in
him until the doctor came. Only Rochester knew it was
useless. He had seen the shadow of death pass across the
gray, stricken face.

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CHAPTER IX

A SSNTIMBNTAL TAXK

LOIS Opened the gate and stole into the lane witli
the air of a guilty child. She gave a little gasp
as she came face to face with Saton, and pick-^
ing up her skirts, seemed for a mom^t about to fly. He
stood quite still — his face was sad -^almost reproach-
ful. She dropped her skirt and came slowly, doubtfully
towards him.

" I have come,'* she said. ** I was forced to come.
Oh, Mr. Saton! How could you? **

His features were wan. There were lines under his
dark eyes. He was looking thin and nervous. His voice,
too, had lost some of its pleasant qualities.

**My dear young lady," he said, "my dear Lois,
what do you mean? You don't suppose — you can't —
that it was through me in any way that— -that thing
happened? "

"Oh, I don't know!" she faltered, with white lips.
** It was all so horrible. You pointed to him, and your
eyes when you looked at him seemed to shine as though
they were on fire. I saw him shrink away, and the color
leave his cheeks. It was horrible ! "

" But, Lois," he protested, " you cannot imagine that
by looking at a man I could help to kill him? I can't ex-

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A SENTIMENTAL TALK 75

plain what happened. As yet there are things in the
world which no one can explain. This is one of them. I
know a little more than most people. It is partly tem-
perament, perhaps — partly study, but it is surely true
that I can sometimes feel things coming. From the first
moment I looked into Guerdon's face at dinner-time, I
knew what was going to happen. Out there in the hall
I felt it. Once before in South America, I saw a man
shoot himself. I tell you that I was certain of what he
was going to do before I knew that he had even a re-
volver in his pocket. It comes to me, the knowledge of
these things. I cannot be blamed for it. Some day J shall
write the first text-book that has ever been written of
a new science. I shall evolve the first few rudimentary
laws, and after that the thing will go easily. Every gen-
eration will add to them. But, Lois, because I am the
first, because I have seen a little further into the world
than others, you are not going to look at me as though
I were a murderer ! '*

She drew a little breath, a breath of relief. Her hand
fell upon his arm.

" No ! *' she said. *' I have been foolish. It is absurd
to imagine that you could have brought that about by
just wishing for it.'*

" Why, even, should I have wished for it? " he asked.
** Lord Guerdon was a stranger to me. As an acquain-
tance I found him pleasant enough. I had no grudge
against him."

She drew him a little way on down the lane.

** I must only stay for a few minutes," she said. " If

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76 THE MOVING FINGER

we walk down here we shall meet nobody. Do you know
what Mr. Rochester has suggested? "

" No ! " Saton answered. " What? "

" He says that Lord Guerdon had always been un-
easily conscious of having seen you somewhere before.
He says that at the very moment when he was stricken
down, he seemed to remember! '*

" That does not seem to me to be important," Saton
remarked.

" Can't you understand? ** she continued. ** Mr.
Rochester seems to think that Lord Guerdon had seen
you somewhere under disgraceful circumstances. There !
I've got it out now," she added, with a wan little smile.
** That is why he feels sure that somehow or other you
did your best to help him toward death."

" And the others? " Saton asked.

"Oh, it hasn't been talked about!" she answered.
** Everyone has left the house, you know. I only knew
this through Mary."

Saton smiled scornfully.

" My dear girl," he said, " I know for a fact that
Lord Guerdon was suffering from acute heart disease.
He went about always with a letter in his pocket giving
directions as to what should become of him if he were
to die suddenly."

" Is that really true? " she asked. " Oh, I am glad!
Lord Penarvon said so, but no one else seemed sure."

" There is no need, even for an inquest," Saton con-
tinued. " I went to see the doctor this morning, and he
told me so. I am very, very sorry," he went on, taking

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A SENTIMENTAL TALK 77

her hand in his, ^^ that such a thing should happen to
spoil the memory of these few days. They have been
wonderful days, Lois.^

She drew her hand quietly away.

** Yes ! ^ she admitted. " They have been wonderful in
many ways."

" For you,** he continued, walking a little more slowly,
and with his hands clasped behind him, ^^ they have been,
perhaps, just a tiny little leaf out of the book of your
life. To me I fancy they have been something different.
You see I have been a wanderer all my days. I have had
no home, and I have had few friends. All the time I
have had to fight, and there seems to have been no time
for the gentler things, for the things that really make
for happiness. Perhaps," he continued, reflectively,
^^ that is why I find it sometimes a little diiBcult to talk
to you. You are so young and fresh and wonderful.
Your feet are scarcely yet upon the threshold of the Ufe
whose scars I am bearing."

" I am not so very young," Lois said, " nor are you
so very old."

" And yet," he answered, looking into her face, " there
is a great gulf between us, a gulf, perhaps, of more than
years. Miss Lois, I am not going to ask you too much,
but I would like to ask you one thing. Have these days
meant just a little to you also? "

She raised her eyes and looked him frankly in the face.
They were honest brown eyes, a little clouded just now
with some reflection of the vague trouble which was stir-
ring in her heart.

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78 THE MOVING FINGER

"I will answer you frankly,'* she said. **Y«^ they
hare meant something to me ! And yet, list^i. I am go^
ing to say something unkind There is something «*— I
don't know what it is -— betweeu us, which troubles me.
Oh, I know that you are much cleverer than other men,
and I would not have you different ! Yet there is some-
thing else. Would you be very angry, I wonder, if I told
the truth?'*

** No ! " he assured her. " Go on, please."

^^ I feel sometimes," she continued, ^^ as though I could
not trust you. There, don't be angry," she went on, lay-
ing her fingers on his arm. "I know how honrid it
sounds, but it is there in my heart, and it is because I
would like to believe, it is because I want there to be
nothing between us of distrust, that I have told you."

They walked slowly on, side by side. His face was
turned a little from hers. She was bending forward, as
though anxious to catch a glimpse of his expression.
Through the case hardening of years, her voice for a
moment seemed to have found its way back into the heart
of the boy, to have brought him at least a momentary
twinge as he realized, with a passing regret, the abstract
beauty of the more simple ways in life. Those few min-
utes were effective enough. They helped his pose. The
regret passed. A shadow of pain took its place. He
came to a standstill and took her hands in his.

** Dear little girl," he said, ^* perhaps you are right.
I am not altogether honest. I am not in the least like the
sort of man who ought to look at you and feel towards
you as I have looked and felt during these wonderful

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A SENTIMENTAL TALK 79

days. But all of us have our weak spots, you know. I
think that you found mine. Good-bye, little girl ! "

She would have called him back, but he had no idea
of lending himself to anything so inartistic. With head
thrown back, he left the footpath and climbed the hill
round which they had been walking. Not once did he
look behind. Not once did he turn his head till he stood
on the top of the rock-strewn eminence, his figure clearly
outlined against the blue sky. Then he straightened him*
self and turned round, thinking all the time how won*
derf uUy effective his profile must seem in that deep, soft
light, if she should have the sense to look.

She did look. She was standing very nearly where he
had left her. She was waving her handkerchief, beckon-
ing him to come down. He raised his hand above his head
as though in farewell, and turned slowly away. As soon
as he was quite sure that he was out of sight, he took his
cigarette case from his pocket and began to smoke!

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CHAPTER X

THE SCENE QHAN6ES

SATON left the country on the following after-
noon, arrived at St, Pancras soon after five, and
drove at once to a large, roomy house on the north
side of Regent's Park, He was admitted by a trim par-
lormaid — Parkins had been left behind to superin-
tend the removal from Blackbird's Nest — and he found
himself asking his first question with a certain amount
of temerity.

" Madame is in? ^* he inquired.

" Madame is in the drawing-room," the maid answered.

"Alone?** Saton asked.

" Quite alone, sir.''

Saton ascended the stairs and entered the drawing-
room, which was on the first floor, unannounced. At the
further end of the apartment a woman was sitting, her
hands .folded in front of her, her eyes fixed upon the
wall. Saton advanced with outstretched hands.

" At last ! " he exclaimed.

The woman made no reply. Her silence while he
crossed a considerable space of carpet, would have been
embarrassing to a less accomplished poseur. She was tall,
dressed in a gown of plain black silk, and her brown,
withered face seemed one of those which defy alike time

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^ THE SCENE CHANGES 8i

and its reckoning. Her white hair was drawn back from
her forehead, and tied in a loose knot at the back of her
head. Her mouth was cruel. Her eyes were hard and
brilliant. There was not an atom of softness, or of hu-
man weakness of any sort, to be traced in any one of
her features. Around her neck she wore a scarf of bril-
liant red, the ends of which were fastened with a great
topaz.

Saton bent over her affectionately. He kissed her upon
the forehead, and remained with his arm resting upon
her shoulder. She did not return his embrace in any
way.

^^ So you've come back," she said, speaking with a
sharpness which would have been unpleasant but for the
slight foreign accent.

" As you see," he answered. " I left this afternoon,
and came straight here."

" That woman Helga has been down there. What did
she want? " she demanded.

Saton shrugged his shoulders slightly, and turning
away, fetched a chair, which he brought close to her side.

" I am afraid," he said bluntly, " that she came to see
me."

The woman's eyes flashed.

« Ah! " she exclaimed. " Go on."

Saton took her hand, and held it between his. It
was dry and withered, but the nails were exquisitely mani-
cured, and the fingers were aflame with jewels.

" Dear Rachael," he said, " you must remember that
when I was alone in London waiting to hear from you,

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82 THE MOVING FINGER

I naturally saw a good deal of Helga. She was kind to
me, and she was the means by which your letters and
messages reached me. I am afraid," he continued,
thoughtfully, " that I was so happy, in those days, to
have found anyone who was kind and talked decently to
me, that I may have misled her. There has been a little
trouble once or twice since. I have tried to be pleasant
and friendly with her. She seems — forgive me if it
sounds conceited — she seems to want more."

** Hussy ! " the old lady declared. *♦ She shaU go."

"Don't send her away," he begged, replacing her
hand gently on her lap. " I daresay it was entirely my
fault."

The woman looked at him, and a cruel smile parted her
lips.

"I have no doubt it was," she said. "You are like
that, you know, Bertrand. Still, one must have disci*
pline. She asked for a day's holiday to go into the
country to see her relatives, and I find her going to see
you behind my back. It cannot be permitted."

" It will not happen again," he assured her. " I feel
myself so much to blame."

" I have no doubt," she said, " that you are entirely to
blame, but that is not the question. Unfortunately, there
are other things to be considered, or she would have been
sent packing before now. Tell me, Bertrand, what kept
you down in the country these last few days? "

** I wanted a rest," he answered. " I have to read my
paper to-night, you know, and I was tired."

" You have been spending your time alone? "

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THE SCENE CHANGES 8$

** No I '* he answered^ with scarcely a second's hesita*
tion. " I have been once or twice to Beauleys.'*

" To see your friend Henry Rochester, I suppose? **
she asked.

Baton's face darkened.

" No ! " he answered. " I would not move a step to
see him. I hate him, and I think he knows it."

" Who were the ladies of the party ? " the woman
asked. ^^ Their nam^ one by one, mind. Begin with the
eldest."

** Lady Penarvon."

** I know. Go on," she said

" Mrs. Hinckley."

'' Go on."

** Miss Lois Champneyes/'

** Young P " the woman asked.

^*Yes!"

^* Pretty?"

**Ye8!"

"A victim?"

Saton frowned*

^^ There was also," he oontinued, ^^ my hi>stets^ Lady
Mary Rochester."

^^ A silly, fluffy little Woman," Madame . declared^
"Did she flirt?"

** Not with me, at any rate," Saton answered.

** Too experienced," Madame remarked. " Perhaps
too good a judge of your sex. Who else? "

" Lady Marr&bel."

** A very beautiful woman, I have heard," Madame re*

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84 THE MOVING FINGER

marked. "Also young, I believe. Also, I presume, a
victim.*'

"It is not kind of you," Saton protested. "These
women were staying in the house. One has to make one-
self agreeable to them."

" Someone else was staying in the house," Madame
continued, fixing her brilliant eyes upon his face.
" Someone else, I see, died there."

" You mean Lord Guerdon? " Saton muttered, softly.

" He died there," she said, nodding. " Bertrand, did
he — did he recognise you? "

"He would have done," Saton said slowly, "if he
had not died. He was just beginning to remember."

She looked at him curiously for several minutes.

" Well," she said, " I ask no questions. Perhaps it is
wiser not. But remember this, Bertrand, I know some-
thing of the world, and the men and women who live in
it. You are a bom deceiver of women. It is the role
which nature meant you to play. You can turn them,
if you will, inside out. Perhaps you think you do the
same with me. Let that go. And remember this. Have
as little to do with men as possible. Your very strength
with women would be your very weakness with men. Re-
member, I have warned you."

" You don't flatter me," he said, a little unpleasantly.

" Bah ! " she answered. " Why should you and I play
with words? We know one another for what we are.
Give me your hands."

He held them out. She took them suddenly in hers and
drew him towards her.

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THE SCENE CHANGES 85

** Kiss me ! " she commandecL

He obeyed at once. Then she thrust him away.

" I go with you to this conversazione to-night,'* she
said. ^ It is well that we should sometimes be seen to-
gether. I shall let it be known that you are my adopted
son.**

" That is as you will,'* he said, with secret satisfac-
tion.

" Why not? " she declared. " I never had a son, but
I'm foolish enough to care for you quite as much as I
could for any child of my own. 60 and get ready. We
dine at seven. — No ! come back."

She placed her long, clawlike fingers upon his shoul-
ders, and kissed him on both cheeks. She held him tightly
by the arms, as though there was something else she
would have said — her lips a little parted, her eyes bril-
liant.

** Go and get ready," she said abruptly. ** Look yoiur
prettiest. You have a chance to make friends to-night."

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CHAPTER XI

A BUST EYENINO

THE conversazione was, in its way, a brilliant
gathering. There were present scientists, men
of letters, artists, with a very fair sprinkling
of society people, always anxious to absorb any new sen-
sation. One saw there amongst the white-haired men,
passing backwards and forwards, or talking together
in little knots, professors whose names were famous
throughout Europe.

A very great man indeed brought Saton up to Paul-
ine with a little word of explanation.

** I am sure," he said to her — she was one of his old-
est friends — ^^ that you will be glad to meet the gentle-
man whose brilliant paper has interested us all 00 much.
This is Lady Marrabel, Saton, whose father was pro-
fessor at Oxford before your day.'*

The great man passed on. Pauline's first impulse had
been to hold out her hand, but she had immediately with-
drawn it. Saton contented himself with a grave bow.

"I am afraid. Lady Marrabel," he said, "that you
are prejudiced against me."

" I think not," she cmswered. " Naturally, seeing you
so suddenly brought into my mind the terrible occurrence
of only a few days ago."

" An occurrence," he declared, " which no one could

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A BUSY EVENING 87

regret so greatly as myself. But apart from that. Lady
Marrabel, I am afraid that you are not prepared to do
me justice. You look at me through Rochester's eyes,
and I am quite sure that all his days Rochester will be-
lieve that I am more or less of a charlatan.'*

" Your paper was very wonderful, Mr. Saton," she
said slowly. " I am convinced that Mr. Rochester would
have admitted that himself if he had been here."

** He might," Saton said. " He might have admitted
that much, with a supercilious smile and a little shrug of
the shoulders. Rochester is a clever man, I believe, but
he is absolutely insular. There is a belt of prejudice
around him, to the hardening of which centuries have
come and gone. You are not, you cannot be like that,"
he continued with conviction. " There is truth in these
things. I am not an ignorant mountebank, posing as a
Messiah of science. Look at the men and women who
are here to-night. They know a little. They understand
a little. They are only eager to see a little further
through the shadows. I do not ask you to become a con-
vert. I ask you only to believe that I speak of the things
in which I have faith."

** I am quite sure that you do," she answered, with a
marked access of cordiality in her tone. ** Believe me, it
was not from any distrust of that sort that I perhaps
looked strangely at you when you came up. You must
remember that it is a very short time since our last meet-
ing. One does not often come face to face with a tragedy
like that."

** You are right," he answered. " It was awful. Yet

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88 THE MOVING FINGER

you saw how they drove me on. I spoke what I felt and
knew. It is not often that those things come to one, but
that there was death in the room that night I knew as
surely as I am sitting with you here now. They goaded
me on to speak of it. I could not help it."

" It was very terrible and very wonderful," she said,
looking at him with troubled eyes. ^^ They say that Lady
Mary is still suffering from the shock."

"It might have happened at any moment," he re-
minded her. " The man had heart disease. He had had
his warning. He knew very well that the end might come
at any moment."

" That 10 true, I suppose,*' she admitted. " The med-
ical examination seemed to account easily enough for his
death. Yet there was something uncanny about it."

" The party broke up the next day, I suppose," he
continued. ** I have been down in the country, but I have
heard nothing."

" We left before the funeral, of course," she answered.

" Fortunately for me," he remarked, " I had im-
portant things to think of. I had to prepare this paper.
The invitation to read it came quite unexpectedly. I
have been in London f o]r so short a time, indeed, that I
scarcely expected the honor of being asked to take any
share in a meeting so important as this."

" I do not see why you should be surprised," she said.
** You certainly seem to have gone as far in the study of
occultism as any of those others."

He looked at her thoughtfully.

"You yourself should read a little about these

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A BUSY EVENING 89

things,'* he said — ^** read a little and think a little. You
would find very much to interest you.'*

" I am sure of it,'* she answered, almost humhly.
** Will you come and see me one day, and talk about it?
I live at Number 17, Cadogan Street."

" I will come with pleasiure," he answered, rising.
** Will you forgive me if I leave you now? There is a
man just leaving with whom I must speak."

He passed away, and left the room with a little thrill
of satisfaction. He had contrived to impress the one
woman whom he was anxious to impress! Children like
little Lois Champneyes and those others, were easy. This
woman he knew at once was something different. Besides,
she was a friend of Rochester's, and that meant some-
thing to him.

He walked along Regent Street to the end, and cross-
ing the road, entered a large caf6. Here he sat before
one of the marble-topped tables, and ordered some cof-
fee. In a few minutes he was joined by another man,
who handed his coat and hat to the waiter, and sat down
with the air of one who was expected. Baton nodded, a
little curtly.

"Will you take anything?" he asked.

" A bottle of beer and a cigar," the newcomer or-
dered. " A shilling cigar, I think, to-night. It will run
to it."

" Anything special? " Baton asked.

^^ Things in general are about the same as usual," his
companion answered " They did a little better in Ox-
ford Street and Regent Street, but Violet had a dull

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90 THE MOVING FINGER

day in Bond Street, I have closed up the Egyptian
place in the Arcade — * Ayesha * we called it. The police
are always suspicious of a woman's name, and I had a
hint from a detective I know.'*

Saton nodded.

" You have something dse to tdl me, haven't you? "
he asked.

"Yes!" the other answered. "We had a very im-
portant diait in Bond Street this afternoon, one of
those whose names you gave me."

Saton leaned across the table.

" Who was it? " he asked.

" Lady Mary Rochester of Beauleys," the oth^ an-
swered — *^ got a town house, and a big country place
down in Mechestershire."

Something flashed for a moment in Saton's eyes, but
he said nothing. His companion commenced to draw
leisurely a sheet of paper from his breast coat pocket.
He was fair and middle-aged, respectably dressed, and
with the air of a prosperous city merchant. His eyes
were a little small, and his cheeks inclined to be fat, or
he would have been reasonably good-looking.

" Lady Mary called without giving her name," he con-
tinued, " but we knew her, of course, by our picture gal-
lery. She called professedly to amuse herself. She was
told the usual sorts of things, with a few additions
thrown in from our knowledge of her. She seemed very
much impressed, and in the end she came to a specific
inquiry."

"Go on," said Saton.

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A BUST EVENING 91

" The specific ioqairy was brkfly this," the man con-
tinued. ^^ She gave herself away the moment she opened
her mouth. She bdiaved, in fact, hke a farmer's daugh-
ter asking questions of a gil>sy girL She ^owed us the
photograph of a man, whom we also recognised, and
wanted to know the usual sort of rubbish — whether he
was really fond of her, whether he would be true to her
if she married him.'*

** Married him? " Saton repeated.

" She posed as a widow," the other man reminded him.

** What was the reply ? "

** Violet was clever," the man remarked, with a* slow
smile. ^^ She saw at once that this was a case where some-
thing might be done. She asked for three days, and for a
letter from the man. She said that it was a case in which
a sight of his handwriting, and a close study of it, would
help them to give an absolutely truthful answer."

" She agreed? " Saton asked.

The other nodded, and produced a letter from his
pocket.

"She handed one over at once," he said. "It isnt
particularly compromising, perhaps, but it's full of the
usual sort of rot. She's coming for it on Tuesday."

Saton smiled as he thrust it into his pocketbook.

** I will put this into Dorrington's hands at once," he
said. " This has been very well managed, Huntley. I will
have a liqueur, and you shall have some more beer."

" Don't mind if I do," Mr. Huntley assented cheer-
fully. " It's thirsty weather."

They sxunmoned a waiter, and Saton lit a cigarette.

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92 THE MOVING FINGER

** You've been amongst the big pots to-night," Hunt-
ley remarked, looking at him.

Saton nodded.

** I have been keeping our end up,*' he said, " in the
legitimate branch of our profession. You needn't grin
like that," he added, a little irritably. " There is a legiti-
mate side, and a very wonderful side, only a brain like
yours is not capable of assimilating it. You should have
heard my paper to-night upon self -directed mesmeric
waves."

The man shook his head, and laughed complacently.

** It's not in my way," he answered. " Our business is
good enough as it is."

" You are a fool," Saton said, a little contemptuously.
^* You can't see that but for the legitimate side thertf
would be no business at all. Unless there was a glimmer
of truth at the bottom of the well, unless there existed
somewhere a prototype, Madame Hdga, and Omega, and
Naomi might sit in their empty temples from morning
till night. People know, or are beginning to know, that
there are forces abroad beyond the control of the ordi-
nary commonplace mortal. They are willing to take it
for granted that those who declare themselves able to do
so, are able to govern them."

He broke off a little abruptly. Huntley's unsympa-
thetic face, with the big cigar in the comer of his mouth,
choked the flow of his words.

" Never mind," he said. ** This isn't interesting to
you, of course. As you say, the business side is the more
important. I will see you at the hotel to-morrow night.

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A BUSY EVENING 93

Considering where I hare been this eyening, it is scarcely
wise for us to be seen together,'*

Huntley took the hint, finished his drink, and departed.
Saton sat for a few more minutes alone. Then he too
went out into the street, and walked slowly homewards.
He let himself into the house in Regent's Park with his
latchkey, and went thoughtfully upstairs. The room was
still brilliantly illuminated, and the woman who was sit*
ting over the fire, turned round to greet him.

"Well? "she asked.

Saton divested himself of his hat and coat. Madame's
black eyes were still fixed upon him. He came slowly
across towards her.

"Well?" she repeated.

" You were there," he reminded her. " I saw you sit-
ting almost in the front row. What did you think of
it?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"What does it matter what I think of it? Tell me
about the others."

** My paper was pronounced everywhere to be a great
success," he declared. "Many of the cleverest men in
London were there. They listened to every syllable."

Madame nodded.

"Why trouble to teach them?" she asked, a little
scornfully. "What of Huntley? Have you seen him?
How have they done to-day? "

" It goes well," he answered. " It always goes well."

She moved her head slowly.

*' Yet to-night you are not thinking of it," she said.

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94 THE MOVING FINGER

^ For many nights you have not counted your eammgs.
You are thinking of other things/' she declared harshly.
** Don't look away from me. Look into my eyes.'*

" It is true," he answered. ^ To-night I have been
with clever men. I have measured my wits against theirs.
I have pushed into their consciousness things which they
were im willing to believe. I have made them believe. There
were many people there who felt, I believe, for the first
time, that they were ignorant.'*

The woman looked at him scornfully. There was no
softening in her face, and yet she had taken his hand in
hers and held it.

" What do we gain by that? " die asked harshly.
" What we want is gold, gold all the time. You ought to
know that, you, who have been so near to starvation. Are
you a fool that you don't realize it? "

" I am not a fool," Saton answered calmly, " but there
is another side to the whole matter. A meeting such as
to-night's gives an immense fillip on the part of society
to what they are pleased to call the supernatural. It is
only the fear of ridicule which keeps half the people in
the world from flooding our branches, every one of them
eager to have their fortunes told. A night like to-night
. is a great help. Clever men, men who are believed in, have
accepted the principle that there are laws which govern
the future so surely as the past in its turn has been gov-
erned. One needs only to apprehend those laws, to reduce
them to intelligible formulae. It is an exact study, an ex-
act science. This is the doctrine which I have preached.
When people once believe it, what is to keep them from

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A BUSY EVENING 95

coming in their thousands to those who know more than
they do?''

The woman shook her head derisively.

** No need to wait for those days," she answered.
** The world is packed full of fools now. No need to
wrestle with nature, to wear oneself inside out to give
them truth. Give them any rubbisH. Give them what they
seem to want. It is enough so long as they bring the
^Id. How much was taken to-day altogether? ''

Saton passed on to her the papers which the man
Huntley had given him in the caf6.

" There is the account,'* he said. *' You see it grows
larger every day."

** What becomes of the mcmey ? " she asked.

'^It is paid into the bank, and the banker's receipt
comes to me each morning. There is no chance for fraud.
I must make some more investments soon. Our balance
grows and grows."

The woman's eyes glittered.

*' Bring me some money to-morrow," she begged,
grasping his other hand. " I like to have it here in my
hands. Money and you, Bertrand, my son — they are all
I care for. Banks and investments are well enough. I
like money. Kiss me, Bertrand."

He laughed tolerantly, and kissed her cheek.

" My dear Rachael," he said, *' you have already bags-
f ul of gold about the place."

*^ They are safe," she assured him, " absolutely safe.
They never leave my person. I feel them as I sit. I sleep
with them at night. I am going to bed now. Bertrand ! "

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96 THE MOVING FINGER

"Well? ''he asked.

She pointed to hun with long forefinger, a forefinger
aflame with jewels,

" Look ! We play with no fortune-telling here. What
is there in your face? What is there in your life you are ;
not telling me of? Is it a woman? '*

*' There are many women in my life," he answered.
" You know that.''

** I do," she answered. ** Poor fools ! Play with them
all you will, but remember — the one whom you choose
must have gold ! "

He nodded.

** I am not likely to forget," he said.

She left the room with a farewell caress. There was
something almost tigress-like about the way in which her
arms wound themselves around him — some gleam of the
terrified victim in his eyes, as he felt her touch. Then she
left the room. Saton sank back into an easy-chair, and
gazed steadfastly into the fire through half -closed eyes.

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CHAPTER Xn

A CAIiL OK LADT MABBABEL

SATON, after the reading of his paper before the
members of the London Psychical Society, estab-
lished a certain vogue of which he was not slow to
avail himself. His picture appeared in several illustrated
papers. His name was freely mentioned as being one of
the most brilliant apostles of the younger school of oc-
cultism. He subscribed to a newspaper cutting agency,
and he read every word that was written about himself.
Whenever he got a chance, he made friends with the
press. Everything that he could possibly do to obtain a
certain position in a certain place, he sedulously at-
tempted. He was always carefully dressed, and he was
quite conscious of the fact that his clothes were of cor-
rect pattern and cut. His ties were properly subdued in
tone. His gloves and hat were immaculate.

Yet all the time he lacked confidence in himself. The
word charlatan clung to him like a pestilential memory.
His hair was cropped close to his head. He had shaved
off his moustache. He imitated almost slavishly the at-
tire and bearing of those young men of fashion with
whom he was brought into contact. Yet he was somehow
conscious of a difference. The women seemed never to
notice it — the men always. Was it jealousy, he won-

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98 THE MOVING FINGER

dered, which made them, even the most unintelligent,
treat him with a certain tolerance, as though he were
a person not quite of themselves, whom they scarcely
understood, but were willing to make the best of?

With women it was different always. His encounter
with Pauline Marrabel at the conversazione had given
him the keenest pleasure. He had at once fixed a day
sometime ahead upon which he would take to her the
books he had spoken of. The day had arrived at last,
but he had first another engagement. Early in the after-
noon he turned into Kensington Gardens, and walked up
and down the broad jiatb, glancing every now and then
toward one of the entrances. He saw at last the person
for whom he was waiting.

Lois, in a plain white muslin gown, and a big hat gay
with flowers, came blithely towards him, a little Pome-
ranian under one arm, and a parasol in the other hand*

" I do hope I'm not too dreadfully late ! '' she ex-
claimed, setting the dog down, and taking his hand a lit-
tle shyly. ^^ It seems such an age since I saw you last.
Where can we go and talk? *'

" You are not frightened at me any more, then? **

" Of course not,*' she answered. " We spoke about
that at Beauleys. I do not want to think any more of
that evening. It is over and done with. What a clever
person you are becoming ! '* she went on. " I saw your
name one day last week in the Morning Post. You read
a paper before no end of clever men. And do you know
that your photograph is in two or three of the illus-
trated papers this week? "

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A CALL ON LADY MARRABEL 99

His chedcs flushed with pleasuie. He was unreason-
ably glad that she appreciated these things. His yanity,
which had been a trifle ruffled by some incident earlier in
the day, was effectually soothed*

" These things," he said, " are absolutely valueless to
me except so far as they testify to the importance of
my work. Before long," he wait on, ** I think that there
will be many other people like you, Miss Lois. They will
belieye that there is a little more in life than their dull
eyes can see. You were one of those idio understood
from the first. But there are not many."

She sighed.

^^ I don't think I am a bit clever," she admitted.

^* Cleverness," he answered, ** is not a matter of erudi-
tion. It is a matter of instinct, of capacity for grasping
new truths. You have that capacity, dear Lois, and I
am glad that you are here. It is good to be with you
again."

^^ You really are the most wonderful person," she de-
clared, poking at her little dog with the aid of her fluffy
parasdL ^* You make me feel as though I were something
quite important, and you know I am really a very un-
formed, very unintelligent young person. That is what
my last governess said."

^^ Cat J " he answered laughing. ^^ I can see her now.
She wore a pmee-^nez and a bicycling skirt. I am sure of
it. Come and sit down here, and I will prove to you how
much cleverer I am than that ancient relic." . • •

They parted at the gates, an hour or so later. Baton
resented a little her evident desire to leave him there, and

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xoo THE MOVING FINGER

her half frightened refusal of his invitation to lunch,
but he consoled himself by taking his mid-day meal alone
at Pfince*s, where seyeral people pointed him out to oth-
ers, and he was aware that he was the object of a good
deal of resi>ectf ul interest.

Later in the day, with several books under his arm, he
rang the bell at 17, Cadogan Street. He was committed
now to the enterprise, which had never been out of his
thoughts since the night of the conversazione.

Pauline kept him waiting for nearly a quarter of an
hour. When at la^t she entered, he found himself lost in
admiration of the marvelous simplicity of her muslin
gown and her perfect figure. There was about her some
sort of exquisite perfection, a delicacy of outline and de-
tail almost cameolike, and impossible of reproduction.

She welcomed him kindly, but without any enthusiasm.
He felt from the first that )ie still had prejudices to con-
quer. He sat down by her side and commenced his task.
Very wisely, he ieliminated altogether the personal note
K from his talk. He showed her the books which he; had
brought, and he talked of them fluently and weU. She
became more and more interested. It was scarcely pos-
sible that she could refrain from showing it, for he spoke
of the things which he knew, and things which the citi-
zens of the world in every age have found fascinating.
He seemed to her to have gone a little further into the
great mysterious shadowland than anyone else — to have
come a little nearer reading the great riddle. She was a
good listener, and she interrupted him only once.

" But tell me this,'* she asked, towards the close of one

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A CALL ON LADY MARRABEL zoi

of his arguments. ** This apprehension which you say
one must cultiyate, to be able — how is it you put it? —
to throw out feelers for the things which our ordinary
senses cannot grasp — isn't it a matter largely of tem-
]>erament? '*

. ^* One finds it difficult or easy to acquire," he answered,
** according to one's temperament. A nervous, magnetic
person, who is not afraid of solitude, of solitary thought,
of taking the truth to his heart and wrestling with it —
that person is, of course, always nearer the truth than
the i>erson of phlegmatic temperament, who has to strug^
gle ever so hard to be conscious of anything not actually
within the sphere of his physicdi appr^ension. These
things in our generation will have a great effect. In cen-
turies to come, they will become less and less apparent.
We move rapidly," he went on, •• and I am still a young
man. Before I die, it is my ambition to leave behind me
the first text-book on this new science, the first real and
logical attempt to enunciate absolute laws."

** It is all very Wonderful," she said, sighing gently.
** Do you think that I shall understand any more about
it when I have read these books? "

•* I am sure that you will," he answered. •• You have
intelligence. You have sensibility. You are not afraid
to believe I — that is the trouble with most people."

^^ Answer me one question," she begged. *^ All these
fortune-telling people who have sprung up round Bond
Street — I mean the palmists and crystal-gazers, and
]>eople like that — do they proceed upon any knowledge
whatever, or are they all absolute humbugs? "

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102 THE MOVING FINGER

** To the best of my belief ,** he answered fervently,
" every one of them. Personally, I haven't very much in-
formation, but it has not come under my notice that
there is a single one of these people who even attempts to
probe the future scientifically or even inteUigently, ac-
cording to the demands made upon them* They impose
as much as they can upon the credulity of their clients.
I consider that their existence is absolutely the worst
possible thing for us who are endeavouring to gain a
foothold in the scientific world. Your friend Mr. Roches-
ter, you know, called me a charlatan.'*

" Mr. Rochester is never unjust," she answered
quietly. ^^ Some day, perhaps, he will take that word
back.'*

He tried to give their conversation a more personal
note, but he found her elusive. She accepted an invita-
tion, however, to be present at a lecture which he was
giving before another learned society during the follow-
ing week. With that he felt that he ought to be con-
tent. Nevertheless, he left her a little dissatisfied. He
was perfectly well aware that the magnetism which he
was usually able to exert over her sex had so far availed
him nothing with her. Her eyes met his freely, but with-
out any response to the things which he was striving to
express. She had seemed interested all the time, but she
had dismissed him without regret. He walked homewards
a little thoughtfully. If only she were a little like Lois !

As he passed the entrance to the Park, an electric
brougham was suddenly pulled up, and a lady leaned
forward towards him. He stepped up to her side, hat in

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A CALL ON LADY MARRABEL 103

hand. It was Lady Mary Rochester. She was exquisitely
gowned and hatted, with a great white veil which floated
gracefully around her picture-hat, and she welcomed him
with a brilliant smile.

" My dear Mr. Saton," she exclaimed, ** what a fortu-
nate meeting ! Only a few minutes ago I was thinking of
you."

" I am Tery much flattered," he answered.

" I mean it," she declared. " I wonder whether you
could spare me a few minutes. I don't mean here," she
added. ** One can scarcely talk, driving; Come in after
dinner, if you have nothing to do, just for half-an-hour.
My husband is down in the country, and I am not going
out until eleven."

^ I shall be very pleased,'* he answered, a little me-
chanically, for he found the situation not altogether an
easy one to grasp.

" Don't forget," she said. ** Number 10, Berkeley
Square," with a look of relief.

The electric brougham rolled on, and Saton crossed
the road thoughtfully. Then a sudden smile lightened
his features. He realized all at once what it was that
Lady Mary wanted from him.

Rachael was waiting for him when he returned. She
was seated before the table, her head resting upon her
hands, her eyes fixed upon the little piles of gold and
notes which she had arranged in front of her. She
watched him come in and take off his hat and coat, in
silence.

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104 THE MOVING FINGER

" Well? ^ she asked. « How do things go to-day? *'

" I have not the reports yet,'* he answered. " It is too
early. I shall have them later.**

" What have you been doing? ** she asked.

" I walked with a girl, Lois Champneyes, in Kensing-
ton Gardens most of the morning, and I called upon a
woman — Lady Marrabel — this afternoon,** he an-
swered.

Rachael nodded.

" Safe companions for you,** she muttered. " Remem-
ber what I always teU you. You are of the breed that can
make fools of women. A man might find you out.**

He turned an angry face upon her.

" What is there to find out? ** he demanded. " I am
not an impostor. I am a man of science. I have proved
it. Your fortune-telling temples are all very well, and
the money they bring is welcome enough. But neverthe-
less, I am not the vulgar adventurer that you sometimes
suggest.**

The woman laughed, laughed silently and yet heart-
ily, but she never spoke. She looked away from him pres-
ently, and drawing the pile of gold and notes nearer to
her, began to recount them with her left hand. Her right
she held but to him, slowly drawing him towards her.

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CHAPTER Xni

LADT MAKT's dilemma

LADY MARY'S boudoir was certainly the most
luxurious apartment of its sort into which
Saton had ever been admitted. There were great
bowls of red roses upon the small ormolu table and on
the mantelpiece. Several exquisite etchings hung upon
the lavender walls. The furniture was all French. Every
available space seemed occupied with costly knick-knacks
and curios. Photographs of beautiful women, men in
court dress and uniform, nearly all of them signed, were
scattered about on every available inch of space, and
there was also that subtle air of femininity about the
apartment, to which he was unaccustomed, and which
went to his head like wine. It was evident that only priv-
ileged visitors were received there, for apart from the air
of intimacy which seemed somehow to pervade the place,
there were several articles of apparel, and a pair of slip-
pers lying upon the hearthrug.

Lady Mary herself came rustling in to him a few min-
utes after his arrival, gorgeous in a wonderful shimmer-
i^g go^^f which seemed to hang straight from her shoul-
ders — the very latest creation in the way of tea-gowns.

** I know you will forgive my receiving you like this,'*
she said, holding out her hand. " To tell you the truth.

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zo6 THE MOVING FINGER

I dined here absolutely alone, and I thought that I would
not dress till afterwards. I am going on to the ball at
Huntingf ord House, and it is always less trouble to go
straight from one's maid. You have had coffee? Yes?
Then sit down at the end of this couch, please, and tell
me whether you think you can help me.*'

Saton was not altogether at his ease. The brilliancy
of his surroundings, the easy charm of the woman, were
a little disconcerting. And she was Rochester's wife, the
wife of the man whom he hated I That in itself was a
thing to be always kept in mind. Never before had she
seemed so desirable.

^* If you will tell me in what way I can be of service,
Lady Mary," he began

She turned towards him pathetically.

"Really," she said, "I scarcely know why I asked
for your help, except that you seem to me so much clev-
erer than most of the men I know."

" I am afraid you Qver-rate my abilities," he said,
with a slight deprecatin^mile. " But at any rate, please
be sure of one thing. You could not have asked the ad-
vice of anyone more anxious to serve you."

** How kind you are I" she murmured. " I am going
to make a confession, and you will see, after all, that
the trouble I am in has something to do with you. You
remember that night at Beauleys? "

" Yes ! " he answered.

" We won't talk about it," she continued. " We
mustn't talk about it. Only it gave me foolish thoughts.
From being utterly incredulous or indifferent, I went to

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LADY MARY'S DILEMMA X07

the other extreme. I became, I suppose, absolutely fool-
ish. I went to one of those stupid women in Bond
Street."

" You went to have your fortune told? " he asked.

She nodded.

" Oh, I suppose so ! *' she said. " I asked her a lot of
things, and she looked into a crystal globe and told me
what she saw. It was quite interesting, but unfortu-
nately I went a little further than I meant to. I asked
her some ridiculous questions about — a friend of
mine.*'

He smiled sympathetically.

" Well," he said, " this all seems rather like a waste of
time, but I scarcely see how it would be likely to land you
in a difficulty."

" But it has," she answered. ** That is what I want to
explain to you. The woman insisted upon haying a letter
in the handwriting of the person I asked questions about,
and I foolishly gave her one that was in my pocket.
When I asked for it back again, the day afterwards, she
said she had mislaid it."

" But was the letter of any importance? " he asked.

" There wasn't much in it, of course," she answered,
** but it was a private letter."

" It is infamous ! " he declared. " I should give infor-
mation to the police at once."

She held out her hands — tiny little white hands, ring-
less and soft.

** My dear man," she exclaimed, " how can I? Give in-
formation to the police, indeed ! What, go and admit be-

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zo8 . THE MOVING FINGER

fore a magistrate that I had been to a fortune-teller,
especially,'' she added, looking down, ** on such an er-
rand?''

He drew a little nearer to her.

" I beg your pardon," he answered. " I was thought-
less. That, of course, is not possible. Tell me the name
and the address of the jierson to whom you went."

" The woman's name was Helga," she answered, " and
it wias in the upper end of Bond Street. Daisy Knowles
told me about the place. Heaps of people I know haye
been."

" And the letter? " he asked. " Tell me, if you can,
what is its precise significance? "

" It was a letter from Charlie Peyton," she answered
— ^** Major Peyton, in the Guards, you know. There
wasn't anything in it that mattered really, but I shall
not have a moment's peace until it is returned to me."

" Have you told me everything? " he asked.

"No! "she admitted.

** Perhaps it would be as well," he murmured.

She produced a letter from the bosom of her gown.

" I received this last night," she said.

He glanced it rapidly through. The form of it was
well-known to him.
" Dear Madam,

" A letter addressed to you, and in the handwriting
of a certain Major Charles Peyton, has come into our
hands within the last few hours. It is dated from the
Army and Navy Club, and its postmark is June 1st. The
contents are probably well-known to you.

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LADY MARY'S DILEMMA X09

** It is our wish to return same into your hands at once,
but we may say that it was handed to us in trust by a
gentleman who is indebted to us for a considerable sum
of money 9 and he spoke of this document, which we did
not inspect at the time, as being a probable form of
security.

** Perhaps your ladyship can suggest some means by
which we might be able to hand over the letter to you
reithout breaking faith with our friend.
" Sincerely yours,

" Jacobson Sf Co. — Agents.

" 17, Charing Cross Road.''

" A distinct attempt at blackmail ! " Saton exclaimed,
indignantly.

" Isn't it wicked? '* Lady Mary replied, looking at
him appealingly. " But how am I to deal with it? What
am I to do? I don't wish to correspond with these peo-
ple, and I daren't tell Henry a thing about it."

** Naturally," he answered. "My dear Lady Mary,
there are two courses open to you. First, you can take
this letter to the police, when you will get your own let-
ter back without paying a penny, and these rascals will
be prosecuted. The only disadvantage attached to this
course is that your name will appear in the papers, and
the letter will be made public."

** You must see," she declared, ** that that is an abso-
lute impossibility. My husband would be furious with
me, and so would Major Pe3rton. Please suggest some-
thing else."

** Then, on the other hand," he continued, " the only

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xxo THE MOVING FINGER

altemative course is to make the best bargain you can
with the scoundrels who are responsible for this."

^ But how can I? *• she asked plaintively. " I cannot
go to see these people, nor can I have them come here.
I don't know how much money ihej want. You know I
haven't a penny of my own, and although my, husband
is generous enough, he likes to know what I want money
for. I have spent my allowance for the whole of the year
already. I believe I am even in debt."
« Saton hesitated for several moments. Lady Mary
watched him all the time anxiously.

" If you will allow me," he said, ** I will take this let-
ter away with me, and see these people on your behalf.
I have no doubt that I can make much better terms with
them than you could."

She drew a little sigh of relief.

** That is just what I was hoping you would pro-
pose," she declared, handing it over to him. ^ It is so
good of you, Mr. Saton. I feel there are so few people
I could trust in a matter like this. You will be very care-
ful, won't you?"

** I will be very careful,'* he answered.

** And 'when you have the letter," she continued, ** you
will bring it straight back to me? "

" Of course," he promised, " only first I must find out
what their terms arm. They will probably begin by sug-
gesting an extravagant simi. Tell me how far you are
prepared to go?"

** You think I shall have to pay a great deal of money,
then?" she asked, anxiously.

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^ LADY MARY'S DILEMMA xxx

" That depends entirely,'* he answered, ** upon what
jou call a great deal of money."

^^ I might manage two hundred pounds/' she said,
doubtfully.

He smiled.

*^I am afraid," he said, ^that Messrs. Jacobson &
Co., or whatever their name is, will expect more than
that."

" It is so unlucky," she murmured. ** I have just paid
a huge dressmaker's bill, and I have lost at bridge every
night for a week. Do the best you can for me, dear Mr.
Saton."

He leaned towards her, but he was too great an artist
not to realize that her feeling for him was one of pure
indifference. He was to be made use of, if possible — to
be dazzled a little, perhaps, but nothing more.

^ I will do the best I can," he said, rising, as he
saw her eyes travel towards the clock, *^ but I am afraid
— I don't want to frighten you — but I am afraid that
you will have to find at least five hundred pounds."

*^ If I must, I must," she answered, with a sigh. ^ I
shall have to owe money everywhere, or else teU Hairy
that I have lost it at bridge. This is so good of you,
Mr. Saton."

" If I can serve you," he concluded, holding her hand
for a moment in his, *^ it will be a pleasure, even though
the circumstances are so unfortunate."

^^ I shall, esteem the service none the less," she an-
swered, smiling at him. ^^ Come and see me directly you
know anything. I shall be so anxious."

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112 THE MOVING FINGER

Saton made his way to the caf£ at the end of Regent
Street. This time he had to wait a little longer, but in
the end the man who had met him there before appeared
He came in smoking a huge cigar, and with his silk hat
a little on one side.

" A splendid day ! '* he declared. " Nearly double yes-
terday's receipts. The papers are all here."

Saton nodded, taking them up and glancing them
rapidly through.

"Do you know where I can find Dorrington? '* he
said. "I want that letter — the Peyton letter, you
know.'*

Huntley nodded.

** I've got it in my pocket,'' he said. " I was keeping
it until to-morrow."

Saton held out his hand.

** I'll take it," he said. " I can arrange terms for this
matter myself."

Huntley looked at him in surprise.

** It isn't often," he remarked, " that you care to in-
terfere with this side of the game. Sure you're not run-
ning any risk? We can't do without our professor, you
know." ^'

Saton shivered a little.

" No ! I am running no risk," he said. ^^ It happens
that I have a chance of settling this fairly well."

He had a few more instructions to give. Afterwards
he left the place. The night outside was close, and he
was conscious of a certain breathlessness, a certain im-
patient desire for air. He turned down toward the Em-

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LADY MARY'S DILEMMA 113

bankment, and sat on one of the seats, looking out at
the sky signs and colored advertisements on the other
side of the river, and down lowor, where the tall black
buildings lost their outline in the growing dusk.

His thoughts travelled backwards. It seemed to him
that once more he sat upon the hillside and built for
himself dream houses, saw himself fighting a splendid
battle, gathering into his life all the great joys, the
mysterious emotions which one may wrest from fate.
Once more he thrilled with the subtle pleasure of imag-
ined triumphs. Then the note of reality had come.
Rochester's voice sounded in his ears. His dreams were
to become true. The sword was to be put into his hand.
The strength was to be given him. The treasure-houses
of the world were to fly, open at his touch. And then
once more he seemed to hear Rochester's voice, cold and
penetrating. ** Anything hut faUuret If you fatly srvim
out on a mrmy day, and wait until the waves creep over
your neck, over your head, and you sinkl The men who
fail are the creatures of the gutter! **

Saton gripped the sides of his seat. He felt himself
suddenly choking. He rose and turned away.

" It would have been better ! It would have been bet-
ter ! " he muttered to himself.

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CHAPTER XIV

PETTT WOBBIES

SATON threw down the letter which he had been
reading, with a little exclamation of impatience.
It was from a man whom, on the strength of an
acquaintance which had certainly bordered upon friend-
ship, he had asked to propose him at a certain well-
known club,

" My dear Mr. Saton,** it ran^ ** I was sent for to-day
hy the Committee here upon the question of your can-
didature for the club. They asked me a good many
questions, xchich I answered to the best of my ahUity,
hut you know they are a very old-fashioned lot, and I
think it would perhaps he wisest if I were to withdraw
your name for the present. This I propose to do unles9
I hear from you to the contrary.

" Sincerely yours,

" Gordon Chambers."
Saton felt his cheeks flush as he thrust the letter to
the bottom of the little pile which stood in front of him.
It was one more of the little annoyances to which some-
how or other he seemed at regular intervcds to be sub-
jected. Latterly, things had begun to expand with him.
He had persuaded Madame to give up the old-fashioned
house in Regent's Park, and they had moved into a

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PETTY WORRIES 1x5

maisonette in Mayfair — a little white-fronted house,
with boxes full of scarlet geraniums, a second man-serv-
ant to open the door, and an electric brougham in place
of the somewhat antiquated carriage, which the Countess
had brought with her from abroad. His banking account
was entirely satisfactory. There were many men and
women who were only too pleased to welcome him at their
houses. And yet he was at all times subject to such an
occurrence as this.

His lips were twisted in an unpleasant smile as he
frowned down upon the tablecloth.

" It is always like it ! " he muttered. " One climbs a
little, and then the stings come."

Madame entered the room, and took her place at the
other end of the breakfast table. She leaned upon her
stick as she walked, and her face seemed more than ever
lined in the early morning sunlight. She wore a dress of
some soft black material, unrelieved by any patch of
color, against which her cheeks were almost ghastly in
their pallor.

" The stings, Bertrand? What are they? " she asked,
pouring herself out some coffee.

Saton shrugged his shoulders.

" Nothing that you would understand," he answered
coldly. ^^ I mean that you would not understand its ailg-
nificance. Nothing, perhaps, that I ought not to be pre-
I>ared for."

She looked across the table at him with cold expres-
sionless eyes. To see these two together in their moments
of intimacy, no one would ever imagine that her love for

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xx6 THE MOVING FINGER

this boy — he was nothing more when chance had thrown
him in her way — had been the only real passion of her
later days.

** You do not know," she said, ** what I understand or
what I do not understand. Tell me what it is that worries
you in that letter.*'

He pushed it away from him impatiently.

^I asked a friend — a man named Chambers — to
put me up for a club I wanted to join," he said. ^^ He
promised to do his best. I have just received a lett^ ad-
vising me to withdraw. The committee would not elect
me."

"What dub is it?" she asked.

** The * Wanderers '," he answered. " The social qual-
ification is not very stringent. I imagined that they
would elect me."

The woman looked at him as one seeking to under-
stand some creature of an alien world.

" You attach importance," she asked, " to such an in-
cident as this? You? "

" Not real importance, perhaps," he answered, ** only
you must remember that these are the small things that
annoy. They amount to nothing really. I know that.
And yet they sting ! "

" Do not dwell upon the small things, then," she said
coldly. ^ It is well, for all our sakes, that you should oc-
cupy some position in the social world, but it is also well
that you should remember that your position there is not
worth a snap of the fingers as against the great things
which you and I know of. What do these people matter.

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PETTY WORRIES X17

with their strange ideas of birth and position, their little
social distinctions, which remind one of nothing so much
as Swift's famous satire? You are losing your sense of
proportion, my dear Bertrand. Go into your study for
an hour this morning, and think. Listen to the voices of
the greater life. Remember that all these small happen-
ings are of less account than the flight of a bird on a
summer^s day."

"You are right," he answered, with a little sigh,
** and yet you must remember that you and I can scarcely
look at things from the same standpoint. They do not
affect you in the slightest. They cannot fail to remind
me that I am after all an outcast, rescued from ship-
wreck by one strange turn in the wheel of chance."

She looked at him with penetrating eyes.

" Something is happening to you, Bertrand," she said.
^* It may be that it is your sense of proportion which is
at fault. It may be that your head is a little turned by
the greatness of the task which it has fallen to your lot
to carry out. It is true that you are a young man, and
that I am an old woman. And yet, remember! We are
both of us little live atoms in the great world. The only
things which can appeal to us in a different manner are
the everyday things which should not count, which
should not count for a single moment," she added, with a
sudden tremor in her tone.

** You are right, of course," he answered, " and yet,
Rachael, you must remember this. You have finished
with the world. I am compelled to live in it."

" If you are," she rejoined, " is that any reason.

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Bertnuidy wkf joa should pause to listen to tl^ yokes
whose cry » mcaxunj^css? Think I Remember the blind
f olbf of it aU. A decade, a cycle of years, and the m«a
who pass yott in Fall Mall, and the women who nnile at
you from their carnages, will be dead and gone. You —
yo«s nuiy become the Emperor of Time itself. Remember
that!"

" And in the meantime, one has to live."

** Keep your head m the douds,'* she said. " Make use
ef tiicse peoplcy but always remember that in the Ughb of
what may comey they arc only the dirt beneath your feet.
Remember that you may be the first of all the ages to
solve tiie gr^it secret — the secret of carrying your con-
sciousness beycHid the grave."

" Life is short," be said, ** and the task is great."

^ Too great for cowards," she answered. " Yet look
at me. Do I despair? I am seventy-one years old. I have
BO fear of death. I have learnt enough at least to help
me into tiie grape. That will do, Bertrand. Gro on with
your breakfast^ and bum that letter."

He tore it in half, and went to the sideboard to help
hiondf from one of the dishes. When he returned, Ma-
dame waa dnHiHiifiig thoughtfully upon the tablecloth
wi& her long fingers.

''Bertnmd,'»slK8aid.

He looked toward her curiously. There was a new
Mite, a new cxpiession in the way she had prcmounced his

" The girl, the little fair f od. of a girl with money —
GhampiKyes you called her — where is she?"

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" She is in London," he answered.

« With the Rochesters? "

"Yes!"

Rachael frowned.

'^ You find it difficult to see her, tl^n? " she remarked,
thoughtfully.

** I can see her whenever I choose to,** he answered.

" You must marry her,'* Raclmel said. ** Tlie girl will
aerve your purpose as well as another. She is rich, and
^e is a fooL"

" She is not of age,** Saton said drily, ** and Mr.
Rochester is her guardian.**

** She will be of age very soon,** Rachael answered,
** and the money is sure.**

**Do we need it?** he asked, a little impatiently.
" We are making now far more than we can speikl.**

**We need money all the time,** she answered. '^At
present, things prosper. Yet a dbange might come — a
change in the laws, a campaign in the press — anything.
Even the truth might leak out.**

Saton rose from his place, and going once more to the
sideboard, took up and lit a long Russian cigarette. He
returned with the box, and laid it before Rachael.

** If the truth should leak out,** he said, " that would
be the end of us in this country. We have had one es-
cape. I do not mean to find myself in the prisoner's dock
a second time.**

** There is no fear of that,** she answered. ** The whole
business is so arranged that neither you nor I would be
connected with it. Besides, we have rearranged things.

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We are within the pale of the law now. To return to
what I was saying about this girl."

** There is no hurry ,'• he said. " Marriage does not
interest me."

** Marriage for its own sake, perhaps, no," she an-
swered, "and yet money you must have. No man has
ever succeeded in any great work without it. If a pauper
proclaims a theory, he is laughed to scorn. He is called
a charlatan and an impostor. If a rich man speaks of the
same thing, his words are listened to as one who stirs the
world. There is a change in you, Bertrand," she con-
tinued. "You have avoided this girl lately. You have
avoided, even, your work. What is it? "

" Who knows? " he answered, lightly. " The weather,
perhaps — the moon — one's humor, t will walk this
morning in Kensington Gardens. Perhaps I shall see
lois."

He left the house half-an-hour later, after dictating
some letters to a newly installed secretary. He accepted
a carefully brushed hat from a well-trained and perfectly
respectful servant, who placed also in his hands his stick
and gloves. He descended a few immaculate steps and
turned westward, frowning thoughtfully. The matter
with him ! He knew well enough. He had taken his fate
into his hands, played his cards boldly enough, but Fate
was beginning to get her own back.

He turned not toward Kensington Gardens, but to-
wards Cadogan Street. He rang the bell at one of the
most pretentious houses, and asked for Lady Marrabel.
The butler was doubtful whether she would be inclined

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to receive anyone at that hour. He was shown into a
morning-room and kept waiting for some time. Then she
came in, serene as usual, with a faint note of inquiry in
her upraised eyebrows and the tone of her voice as she
welcomed him.

" I m>ist apologize," he began, a little nervously. *' I
have no right to come at such an hour. I heard this
morning that Max Naudheim will be in London before
the end of the week, and I wondered whether you would
care to meet him."

" Of course I should," she answered, " only I hope
that he is more comprehensible than his book."

" I have never met him myself," Saton answered, " but
I know that he has a letter to me. He will come to my
house, I believe, and if he follows out his usual custom,,
he will scarcely leave it while he stays in England. I
shall ask a few people to talk one night. I cannot at*
tempt anything conventional. It does not seem to me to
be an occasion for anything of the sort. If you will
come, I will let you know the night and the time."

She hesitated for a moment.

"And if you should come," he continued, "even
though it be the evening, please wear an old dress and
hat. Naudheim himself seldom appears in a collar. Any
social gathering of any sort is loathsome to him. He
will talk only amongst those whom he believes are his
• friends."

" I will come, of course," Pauline answered. " It is
good of you to think of me."

** He may speak to you," Saton continued. " He takes

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curious fancies sometinieA to address a perfect stranger,
and taSk to them intimately. Remember that though he
Kves in Switaerland, and has a German name, he is really
an Englishman* Nothing annoys him more than to be
spoken to in any other language."

^ I will ranendber," Pauline said.

There was a mom^it's silence. Saton felt that he was
expected to go. Yet there was something' in her manner
which he could not altogether understand, some nervous-
ness, which seemed absolutely foreign to her usual de-
meanour. He took up his hat reluctantly.

^^ You are busy to-day? '' he asked..

^ I am always husy^^ she answered. ^^ Perhaps it is
because I am so lazy. I never da anything, so there is al-
ways so much to do.''

He made the plunge^ speaking without any of his
umal confidence — hurriedOy, almost indistinctly.

<^ Won't you come and have some luncheon with me
ait the Berkeley, or anywhere you please ? I fed like talk-
ing to-day. I feel that I am a little nearer the first law.
I want to speak of it to someone."

She hesitated, and he saw her fingers twitch.

" Thank you," she said, ** I am afraid I can't. If you
lik^ you can come and have luncheon here. I have one
or two people coming in.."

** Thank you," he said. " I shall be glad to come.
About half -past one, I suppose? "

" From that to two," she answered. " My friends drop
in at any time."

He passed out into the street, not altogether satMed

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with his visit, and yet not dissatisfiecL He had an in-
stinctive feeling that in some degree her demeanour to-
wards him was changed. What it meant he could not
wholly tell. She no longer met his eyes with that look of
careless, slightly contemptuous interest. Yet when he
tried to find encouragement from the fact, he felt that he
lacked all fats usual confidoice. He vealiaed with a little
unpube of annoyance that in the presence of this waoMOi,
whom he was more anxious to impress than anyone eke
in' the world, he was subject to sudden lapses of self-
confidence, to a certain BeU^depiredation, whidi irritated
him. Was it, he wondered, because he was always fancy-
ing that she looked at hhn out of Rodiester's eyes?

A cab drove past him, and stopped before the house
whidi he had just left. He looked behind, with a sudden
feeling of almost passionate jealousy. It was Rochester,
who had driven by him imseen, and who was now mount-
ing the steps to her house.

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CHAPTER XV

KOCHE8TEE 18 INDIGNANT

ROCHESTER accepted his wife*» offer of a lift
in her victoria after the luncheon party in
Cadogan Street.

^ Maiy," he said, as soon as the horses had started,
**I cannot imagine why you were so civil to that in-
sufferable bounder Baton."

She looked at him thoughtfully.

^^ Is he an insufferable bounder? " she asked.

**I find him so," Rochester answered, deliberately.
^ He dresses like other men, he walks and moves like
other men, he speaks like other men, and all the time I
know that he is acting. He plays the game well, but it
is a game. The man is a bounder, and you will all of you
find it out some day."

" Don't you think, perhaps," his wife remarked, " that
you are prejudiced because you have some knowledge of
his antecedents?"

" Not in the least," Rochester answered. " The fetish
of birth has never appealed to me. I find as many
gentlefolk amongst my tenants and servants, as at the
parties to which I have the honor of escorting you. It
isn't that at all. It's a matter of insight. Some day
you will all of you find it out."

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" All of us, I presume," Lady Mary said, f* includes
Pauline."

Rochester nodded.

** Pauline has disappointed me," he said. " Never be-
fore have I known her instinct at fault. She must know
— in her heart she must know that there is something
wrong about the fellow. And yet she receives him at her
house, and treats him with a consideration which,
frankly, shall we say, annoys me? "

" One might remind you," Lady Mary remarked,
** that it is you who are responsible for this young man's
introduction amongst our friends."

"It is true," Rochester answered. "I regret it bit-
terly. I regret it more than ever to-day."

** Because of Pauline? " Lady Mary asked.

"Because of Pauline, and for one other reason,"
Rochester answered, lowering his voice, and turning a
little in his seat towards his wife. ** Mary, I was unfor-
tunate enough to hear a sentence which passed between
you and this person in the hall. I would have shut my
ears if I could, but it was not possible. Am I to under-
stand that you have made use of him in some way? "

Lady Mary gasped. This was a thunderbolt to descend
at her feet without a second's warning !

" As a matter of fact," she said slowly, " he has done
me a service."

Rochester's face darkened.

" I should be interested," he said, " to know the cir-
cumstances."

Lady Mary was not a coward, and she realized that

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xa6 THE MOVING FINGER

there was nothing for it but the afaeolute tmtli. Her
husband's eyes were fixed upon her, filled with mn ex-
pression which she very seldom saw in them. After all,
she had little enougb to fear. Their illations were
scarcely such that he could assume the position of a
jealous husband.

" I suppose that you will laugh at me, Henry ,'• she
said. ** Perhaps you will be angry. However, one must
amuse oneself. Frankly, I think that all this talk that is
going on about occultism, and being able to read the fu-
ture, and to find new laws for the government of the
will, has perhaps turned my brain a little. Anyhow, I
went to one of those Bond Street people, and asked them
a few questions.'*

" You mean to one of these crystal-gazers or fortune-
tellers? " he asked.

" Precisely," she answered. ** No doubt you think that
I am mad, but if you had any idea of the women in our
own set who have done the same thing, I think you would
be astonished. Well, whilst I was there I chanced to
drop, or leaye behind — it scarcely concerns you to
know which — a letter written to me by a very dear
friend. One of my perfectly harmless love affairs, you
know, Henry, but men do make such idiots of themselves
when they have pen and paper to do it with."

Rochester moved a little uneasily in his place.

" May I inquire " he began.

" No, I shouldn't ! " she interrupted. " You know very
well, my dear Henry, the exact terms upon which we
have both found married life endurable. If I choose to

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ROCHESTER IS INDIGNANT 127

Teceive foolish letters from foolish men, it concerns you
no more than your silent adoration of Pauline Marrabel
-does me. You understand? "

" I understand," he answered quietly. ** Gro on."

** Well," she continued, " a few days afterwards I had
Just about as terrifying a specimen of a blackmailing
letter as you can possibly imagine."

** From these people? '* Rochester asked.

** No ! From a firm who called themselves agents, and
iBaid that the letter had come into their possession, had
been deposited with them, in fact, by someone who owed
ihem some money," Lady Mary answered. " Of course,
I was frightened to death. I don't know what made me
think of Bertrand Saton as the best person to consult,
but anyhow I did. He took the matter up for me, paid
over some money on my accoimt, and recovered the
letter."

" The sum of money being? "

** Five hundred poimds," Lady Mary answered, with
a sigh. " It was a great deal, but the letter — well, the
letter was certainly very foolish.*'

Rochester was silent for several moments.

** Do you know," he asked at length, ** what the
natural inference to me seems — the inference, I mean,
of what you have just told me? "

** You are not going to say anything disagreeable? "
she asked, looking at him through the lace fringe of
her parasol.

" Not in the least," he answered. " I was not think-
ing of the personal side of the affair — so far as you and

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za8 THE MOVING FINGER

I are concerned, I have accepted your declaration. I
claim no jurisdiction over your correspondence. I mean
as regards Saton.'*

"No! What?" she asked.

" It seems to me highly possible," he declared, " that
Saton was in league with these blackmailers, whoever
they may have been. Any ordinary man whom you had
consulted would have settled the matter in a very differ-
ent way."

" I was quite satisfied," Lady Mary answered. " I
thought it was really very kind of him to take the
trouble."

" Indeed ! " Rochester remarked drily. " I must say,
Mary, that I gave you credit for greater perspicuity.
The man is an intriguer. Naturally, he was only too
anxious to be of service to so charming a lady."

Lady Mary raised her eyebrows, but did not answer.

" I might add," Rochester continued, " that however
satisfactory our present relations may seem to you, I
still claim the privilege of being able to assist my wife
in any difficulty in which she may find herself."

" You are very kind," she murmured.

" Further," Rochester said, " I resent the interference
of any third party in such a matter. You will remember
this?"

" I will remember it," Lady Mary said. " Still, the
circumstances being as they are, you can scarcely blame
me for having been civil to him to-day. Besides, you
must admit that he is clever."

" Clever ! Oh ! IVe no doubt that he is clever enough,"

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ROCHESTER IS INDIGNANT zag

Rochester answered, impatiently. ** Nowadays, all you
women seem as thougU you can only be attracted by
something freakish — brains, or peculiar gifts of some
sort."

Lady Mary laughed lightly.

** My dear Henry," she said, ** you are not exactly a
fool yourself, are you? And then you must remember
this. Bertrand Saton's cleverness is the sort of clever-
ness which appeals to women. We can't help our natures,
I suppose, and we are always attracted by the mys-
terious. We are always wanting to know something
which other people don't know, something of what lies
behind the curtain."

** It is a very dangerous curiosity," Rochester said.
** You are liable to become the prey of any adventurer
with a plausible manner, who has learned to talk glibly
about the things which he doesn't understand. I'll get
out here, if I may," he added, ** and take a short cut
across the Park to my club. Mary, if you want to oblige
me, for Heaven's sake don't run this fellow ! He gets on
my nerves. I hate the sight of him."

Lady Mary turned towards her husband with a faint,
curious smile as the carriage drew up.

** You had better talk to Paulme," she said. ** He is
more in her line than mine."

Rochester walked across the Park a little gloomily.
His wife's last words were ringing in his ears. For the
Srst time since he could remember, a little cloud had
loomed over his few short hours with Pauline. She had
resented some contemptuous speech of his, and as though

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ISO THE MOVING FINGER

to mark her sense of his lack of generosity, she had en-
couraged Saton to talk, encouraged him to talk until the-
other conversation had died away, and the whole room
had listened to this exponent of what he declared to be
a new science. The fellow was a poseur and an impostor,.
Rochester told himself vigorously. He knew, he was ab-
solutely convinced that he was not honest.

He sat down on a seat for a few minutes, and his
thoughts somehow wandered back to that night when he
had strolled over the hills and found a lonely boy gazing^
downward through the tree tops to the fading land-
scape. He remembered his own whimsical generosity, the
feelings with which he had made his offer. He remem-
bered, too, the conditions which he had made. With a
sudden swift anger, he realized that those conditions had
not been kept. Saton had told him little or nothing oF
his doings out in the world, of his struggles and his^
failures, of the growth of this new enthusiasm, if indeed
it was an enthusiasm. He had hinted at strange adven-
tures, but he had spoken of nothing d^nite. He had not-
kept his word.

Rochester rose to his feet with a little exclamation.

** He shall tell me ! *' he muttered to himself, " or I
will expose him, if I have to turn detective and follow
him round the world.'*

He swung round again across the Park toward May-
fair, and rang the bell at Saton's new house. Mr. Saton
was not at home, he was informed, but was expected
back at any moment. Rochester accepted an invitation
to wait, and was shown into a room which at first he

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ROCHESTER IS INDIGNANT 131

thougbt empty. Then someone rose from an okl-faabr
ioned easy-chair, set back amongst the shadows. Rachael
peered forward, leaning upon her stick, and shading her
eyes as thou^ from^ the sun.

" Who is that? '' she asked. " Who are you? "

Rochester bowed, and introduced himself. As yet he
could see very little of the person who had spoken. The
blinds, and even the curtains of the room, were close
drawn. It was one of RachaePs strange fancies on cer-
tain days to sit in the darkness. Suddenly, however, she
leaned forward and touched the knob of the electric
light.

" My name is Rochester," he said. " I called to see
Mr. Saton for a few minutes. They asked me to wait."

"I am the Comtesse de Vestignes," Rachael said
slowly, ^^ and Bertrand Saton is my adopted son. He
will be back in a few moments. Draw your chair up close
to me. I should like to talk, if you do not mind this
light. I have been resting, and my eyes are tired."

Rochester obeyed, and seated himself by her side with
a curious little thrill of interest. It seemed to him that
she was like the mummy of some ancient goddess, the
shadowy presentment of days long past. She had the
withered appearance of great age, and yet the dignity
which refuses to yield to time.

** Come nearer," she said. " I am no longer a young
woman, and I am a little deaf."

" You must tell me if you do not hear me," Rochester
said. " My voice is generally thought to be a clear one.
I am very much interested in this young man. Suppose,

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132 THE MOVING FINGER

while we wait, you tell me a few things about him. You
have no objection? "

Rachael laughed softly.

** I wonder," she said, '^ what it is that you expect to
hear from me/'

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CHAPTER XVI

PLAIN 8PEAKINO

FIOM the depths of her chair, Rachael for several
moments sat and subjected her visitor to a close
and merciless scrutiny.

** So you," she said at last, " were the fairy god-
father. You were the man who trusted a nameless boy
with five hundred pounds, because his vaporings amused
you. You pushed him out into the world, you bade him
go and seek his fortime."

" I was that infernal fool ! '* Rochester muttered.

The woman nodded.

*' Yes, a fool ! " she said. " No one but a fool would
do such a thing. And yet great things have come of it."

Rochester shrugged his shoulders. He was not pre-
pared to admit that Bertrand Saton was in any sense
great.

" My adopted son," she continued, " is very wonder-
ful. Egypt had its soothsayers thousands of years ago.
This century, too, may have its prophet. Bertrand gains
power every day. He is beginning to understand."

" You, too," Rochester asked politely, " are perhaps
a student of the occult? "

"Whatever I am," she answered scornfully, "I am
not one of those who because their two feet are planted

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134 THE MOVING FINGER

upon the earth, and their head reaches six feet towards
the sky, are prepared to declare that there is no universe
save the earth upon which they stand, no sky save the
sky toward which they look — nothing in life which
their eyes will not show them, or which their hands may
not touch."

Rochester smiled faintly,

"Materialism is an easy faith and a safe one," he
said. ** Imagination is very distorting."

" For you who feel like that," she answered, ** the way
through life is simple enough. We others can only pity."

" Comtesse," Rochester said, " such an attitude is per-
fectly reasonable. It is only when you attempt to con-
vert that we are obliged to fall back upon our readiest
weapons."

"You are one of those," she said, looking at him
keenly, " who do not wish to imderstand more than you
understand at present, who have no desire to gain the
knowledge of hidden things."

" You are right, Comtesse," Rochester answered, with
a smile. " I am one of those pig-headed individuals."

** It is the Saxon race," she muttered, " who have kept
back the progress of the world for centuries."

" We have kept it backward, perhaps," he answered,
^* but wholesome."

" You think always of your bodies," she said.

" They were entrusted to us, madam, to look after,"
he answered.

She smiled grimly.

" You are not such a fool," she said, " as my adopted

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PLAIN SPEAKING xss

son would have me believe. You have spared me at least
that hideous Latin quotation which has done so muck
harm to your race.**

" Out of respect to you,'* he declared, " I avoided it..
It was really a little too obvious.**

** Come," she said, ** you are a type of man I have
not met with for years. You are strong and vigorous,
and healthy. You have 'color upon your cheeks, and
strength in your tone and movements. In any show of
your kind, you should certainly be entitled to a prize."

Rochester laughed, at first softly, and then heartily.

** My dear lady," he said, " forgive me. I can assure
you that although my inclinations do not prompt me to
sit at your son's feet and accept his mythical sayings as
the words of a god, I am really not a fool. I will
even go so far as this. I will even admit the possibility
that a serious and religious study of occultism might re-
sult in benefit to all of us. The chief point where you
and I differ is with regard to your adopted son. You
believe in him, apparently. I don't ! "

•^ Then why are you hste? " she asked. " What do
you want with him? Do you come as an enemy? "

Rochester was spared the necessity of making any an-
swer. He heard the door open, and the woman's eyes
glittered as they turned toward it.

" Bertrand is here himself," she said. '* You can set-
tle your business with Inro."

Rochester rose to his feet. Saton had just entered^
closing the door behind him. Prepared for Rochester's
presence by the servants, he greeted him calmly enough..

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136 THE MOVING FINGER

" This is an unexpected honor,*' he said, bowing. " I
did not imagine that we should meet again so soon.''

" Nor I," Rochester answered. " Where can we talk? "

" Here as well as anywhere," Saton answered, going
up to Rachael, and lifting her hand for a moment to his
lips. ^^FrcHn this lady, whose acquaintance I presume
you have made, I have no secrets."

Rochester glanced from one to the other — the woman,
sitting erect and severe in her chair, the young man
bending affectionately over her. Yes, he was right!
There was something about the two hard to explain, yet
apparent to him as he sat there, which seemed in some
way to remove them out of direct kinship with the or-
dinary people of the world. Was it, he wondered, with
a sudden swift intuition, a touch of insularity, a sign of
narrowness, that he should find himself so utterly re-
pelled by this foreign note in their temperaments? Was
his disapproval, after all, but a mark of snobbishness,
the snobbishness which, to use a mundane parallel, takes
objection to the shape of an unfashionable collar, or the
cut of a country-made coat? There were other races
upon the world beside the race of aristocrats. There was
an aristocracy of brains, of genius, of character. Yet he
reasoned against his inspiration. Nothing could make
him believe that the boy who had held out his hands so
eagerly toward the fire of life, had not ended by gather-
ing to himself experiences and a cult of living from
which any ordinary mortal would have shrunk.

" I am quite content," Rochester said, " to say what
I have to say before this lady, especially if she knows

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your history. I have come here to tell you this. I have
been your sponsor, perhaps your unwilling sponsor, into
the society and to the friends amongst whom you spend
your time. I am not satisfied with my sponsorship. That
you came of humble parentage, although you never al-
lude to the fact, goes for nothing. That you may be for-
given. But there are seven years of your past the knowl-
edge of which is a pledge to me. I have come to insist
upon your fulfilment of it. For seven years you disap-
peared. Where were you? How did you blossom into
prosperity? How is it that you, the professor of a new
cult, whose first work is as yet unpublished, find yourself
enabled to live in luxury like this? You had no god-
mother then. Who is this lady? Why do you call her
your jgodmother? She is nothing of the sort. You and
I know that — you and I and she. There are things
about you, Saton, which I find it hard to understand. I
want to understand them for the sake of my friends.*'

" And if you do not? " Saton asked calmly.

" Well, it must be open war,*' Rochester declared.

" I should say that it amounted to that now,'* Saton
answered.

** Scarcely," Rochester declared, ** for if it had been
open war I should have asked you before now to tell me
where it was that you and Lord Guerdon had met. Re-
member I heard the words trembling upon his lips, and
I saw your face ! '*

Saton did not move, nor did he speak for a moment.
His cheeks were a little pale, but he gave no sign of
being moved. The woman's face was like the face of a

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13« THE MOVING FINGER

sphinx, withered and emotionless. Her eyes were fixed
upon Saton's.

^You have spoken to me before somewhat in this
strain, sir," Saton said. ^ What I said to you then, I re-
peat. The account between us is ruled out. You leit or
^ave me a sum of money, and I returned it. As to grati-
tude," he went on, " that I may or may not f eeL I leave
you to judge. You can ask yourself, if you will, wheth^
that action of yours came from an impulse of generosity,
or was merely the gratification of a cynical whim."

** My motives are beside the question," Rochester an-
swered. ^ Do I understand that you decUne to give me
any account of yourself? "

** I see no reason," Saton said coldly, ** why I should
gratify your curiosity."

" There is no reason," Rochester admitted. ** It is
simply a matter of policy. Frankly, I mistrust you.
There arc points about your behaviour, ever since in a
foolish moment I asked you to stay at Beauleys, which
I do not understand. I do not understand Lord Guer-
don's sudden recognition of you, and even suddener
death. I do not understand why it has amused you to
fill the head of my young ward, Lois Champneyes, with
foolish thoughts. I do not understand why y(Hi should
stand between my wife and the writers of a blackmailing
letter. I do not ask you for any explanation. I simply
tell you that these things present themselves as enigmas
to me. You have declared your position. I declare mine.
What you will not tell me I shall make it my business
to discover^"

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s,

PLAIN SPEAKING 139

The Comtesse leaned a little forward. Her face was
still unchanged, her tone scornful.

** It is I who will answer you," she said. ** My adopted
son — for he is my adopted son if I choose to make him
so — will explain nothing. He has, in fact, nothing
man to say to you. You and he are quits so far as re*
gards obligations. Your paths in life li^ apart. You
are one of the self-centred, sedentary loiterers by the
way. For him," she added, throwing out suddenly her
brown, withered hand, aflame with jewels, ** there lie dif-
ferent things. Something he knows; something he has
learned ; much there is yet for him to learn. He will go
on his way, undisturbed by you or any friends of yours.
As for his means, your question is an impertinence. Ask
at Rothschilds concerning the Comtesse de Vestignes^
and remember that what belongs to me belongs to him.
Measure your wits against his, to-day, to-morrow, or
any time you choose, and the end is certain. Show your
patron out, Bertrand. He has amused me for a little
time, but I am tired,^

Rochester rose to his feet.

** Madam," he said, ** I am sorry to have fatigued you.
For the rest," he added, with a note of irony in his tone,
** I suppose J must accept your challenge. I feel that I
am measuring myself and my poor powers against all
sorts of nameless gifts. And yet," he added, as he fol-
lowed Saton towards the door, " the world goes round,
and th^ things which happened yesterday repeat them-
selves to-morrow. Your new science should teach you,
at least, not to gamble against certainties."

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Z40 THE MOVING FINGER

He passed out of the roomy and Saton returned slowly
to where Rachael was sitting. Her eyes sought his in-
quiringly. They read the anguish in his face,

" You are afraid," she muttered.

" I am afraid," he admitted. " Given an inversion of
their relative positions, I feel like Faust befriended by
Mephistopheles. I felt it when he stood by my side on
the hilltop, seven years ago. I felt it when he thrust that
money into my hand, and bade me go and see what I
could make of life, bade me go, without a word of kind-
ness, without a touch of his fingers, without a sentence of
encouragement, with no admonitory words save that one
single diatribe against failure. You know what he told
me? * Go out,' he said, * and try your luck. Go out along
the road which your eyes have watched fading into the
mists. But remember this. For men there is no such thing
as failure. One may swim too far out to sea on a sunny
day. One may trifle with a loaded revolver, or drink in
one's sleep the draught from which one does not awake.
But for men, there is no failure.' "

The woman nodded.

" Well," she said harshly, " you remembered that.
You did not fail. Who dares to say that you have
failed!"

Saton threw himself into the easy-chair drawn apart
from hers. His head fell forward into his hands. The
woman rested her head upon her fingers, and watched
him through the shadows.

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CHAPTER XVn

THE 6BEAT NAUDHEIM

NAUDHEEVI had finished his address, and stood
talking with his host.
" Do you mind," Saton asked, " if I intro-
duce some of these people to you? You know many of
them by name."

Naudheim shook his head. He was a tall man, with
gray, unkempt hair, and long, wizened face. He wore
a black suit of clothes, of ancient cut, and a stock which
had literally belonged to his grandfather.

** No ! " he said vigorously. ** I will be introduced to
no one. Why should I? I have spoken to them of the
things which make life for us. I have told them my
thoughts. What need is there of introduction? I shake
hands with no one. I leave that, and silly speeches, and
banquets, to my enemies, the professors. These are not
my ways."

** It shall be as you wish, of course," Saton replied.
**You are very fortunate to be able to live and work
alone. Here we have to adapt ourself in some way to the
customs of the people with whom we are forced to come
into daily contact."

Naudheim suddenly abandoned that far-away look of
his, his habit of seeing through the person with whom

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142 THE MOVING FINGER

he was talking. He looked into Saton's face steadily, al-
most fiercely.

" Young man,'* he said, ** you talk like a f ooL Now
listen to me. These are my parting words ! There is stuff
in you. You know a little. You could be taught much
more. And above all, you have the temperament. Tem-
peramrat is a wonderful thing," he added. ^ And jet,
with all these gifts, you make me feel as though I would
like to take you by the collar and lift you up in my
arms — yes, I am strong though I am thin — and throw
you out of that window, and see you lie there, because
you art a fool ! "

*^ Go on," Saton said, his face growing a little pale.

** Oh, you know it ! " Naudheim declared. " You feel
it in your blood. You know it in your heart. You truckle
to these people, you play at living their life, and you for-
get, if ever you knew, that our great mistress has never
yet opened her arms save to those who have sought her
single-hearted and with a single purpose. You are a
dallier, philanderer. You will end your days wearing
your fashionable clothes. They may make you a profes-
sor here. You will talk learnedly. You will write a book.
And when you die, people will say a great man has
gone. Listen ! You listen to me now with only half your
ears, but listen once more. The time may come. The
light may bum in your heart, the truth may fill your
soul. Then come to me. Come to me, young man, and I
will make bone and sinew of your flabby limbs. I will
take you in my hands and I will teach you the way to
the stars."

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THE GREAT NAUDHEIM 143

Silently, and without a glance on either side of him,
Naudbeim left the room, amidst a silence which was al-
most an instinctive thing *— the realization, perhaps, of
the strange nature of this man, who from a stem sense
of duty had left his hermit's life for a few days, to speak
with his fellow-workers.

It had been in some req>ects a very curious function,
this. It was neither meeting nor reception. There was
neither host nor hostess, except that Saton had shaken
hands with a few, and from his place by the side of
Naudheim had indicated the turn of those who wished
to speak. Their visitor's peculiarities were well-known
to all of them. He had left them abruptly, not from
any sense of discourtesy, but because he had not the
slightest idea of, or sympathy with, the manners of civil-
ized people. He had given them something to think
about. He had no desire to hear their criticisms* After
he had gone, the doors were held open. There was no one
to bid them stay, and so they went, in little groups of
twos and threes, a curious, heterogeneous crowd, with
the stamp upon their features or clothes or bearing,
which somehow or other is always found upon those who
are seekers for new things. Sallow, dissatisfied-looking
men ; women whose faces spoke, many of them, of a joy-
less life ; people of overtrained minds ; and here and there
a strong, zealous, brilliant student of the last of the
sciences left for solution.

Pauline would have gone with the others, but Saton
touched her hand. Half unwillingly she lingered behind
until they were alone in the darkened room. He went to

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X44 THE MOVING FINGER

the window and threw it wide open. The scent of the
flowers in the window-boxes and a little wave of the soft
west wind came stealing in. She threw her head back
with an exclamation of relief.

"Ah!" she said. "This is good." '

" You found the room close? " he asked.

Pauline sank into the window-seat. She rested her
delicate oval face upon her fingers, and looked away to-
ward the deep green foliage of the trees outside.

" I did not notice it," she said, " and yet, somehow or
other the whole atmosphere seemed stifling. Naudheim
is great," she went on. " Oh, he is a great man, of
course. He said wonderful things in a convincing way.
He made one gasp."

" This afternoon," Saton declared slowly, " marks an
epoch. What Naudheim said was remarkable because of
what he left unsaid. Couldn't you feel that? Didn't you
understand? If that man had ambitions, he. could startle
even this matter-of-fact world of ours. He could shake
it to its very base."

She shivered a little. Her fingers were idly tapping
the window-sill. Her thoughtful eyes were clouded with
trouble. He stood over her, absorbed in the charm of her
presence, the sensuous charm of watching her slim, ex-
quisite figure, the poise of her head, the delicate color-
ing of her cheeks, the tremulous human lips, which seemed
somehow to humanize the spirituality of her expression.
They had talked so much that day of a new science.
Saton felt his heart sink as he realized that he was the
victim of a greater thing than science could teach. It

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THE GREAT NAUDHEIM 145

was madness! — sheer, irredeemable madness! But it was
in his blood. It was there to be reckoned with.

"It is all very wonderful," she continued thought-
fully. ** And yet, can you understand what I mean when
I say that it makes me feel a trifle hysterical? It is as
though something had been poured into one which was
too great, too much for our capacity. It is all true, I
believe, but I don't want it to come."

" Why not? " he asked.

** Oh ! It seems somehow," she answered, ** as though
the whole balance of life would be disturbed. Of course,
I know that it is feasible enough. For thousands of
years men and women lived upon the earth, and never
dreamed that all around them existed a great force which
only needed a little humoring, a little understanding, to
do the work of all the world. Oh, it is easy to under-
stand that we too carry with us some psychical force cor-
responding to this! One feels it so often. Premonitions
come and go. We can't tell why, but they are there, and
they are true. One feels that sense at work at strange
times. Experiments have already shown us that it exists.
But I wonder what sort of a place the world will be
when once it has yielded itself to law."

** There has never been a time," Saton said thought-
fully, " when knowledge has not been for the good of
man."

She shook her head.

" I wonder," she said, " whether we realize what is for
our good. Knowledge, development, culture, may reach
their zenith and pass beyond. We may become debauched

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246 THE MOVING PINOER

with the surfeit of these tilings. The end ainl aim of life
is happiness.'*

** The end and aim of life,** he contradfcted her, ** is
knowledge."

She laughed.

^^ I am a woman^ you see,** she said thou^tfuUy.

" And am I not a man? ^ he whispered.

She turned her head and locked at him. The trouble
in her eyes deepened. She felt the color coming and
going in her chedcs. His eyes seemed to stir things in
h^ against which her wh<^ physical self r^elled. She
rose abruptly to her feet.

" I must go,'* she said. " I have a thousand things to
do this evening.'*

"To play at, you mean," he corrected her. *'You
dont really do very much, do you? The women don't in
your world."

" You are polite," she answered lightly. ** Please to
show me the way out.**

" In a moment," he said.

She was inclined to rebel. They had moved a little
f rowi the window, and were standing in a darker part of
the room. She felt his fingers upon her wrist. She would
have given the world to have been abk to wrench it away,
but she cotikl not. She rtood there submissively, h&c
breath coming quickly, her eyes compelled to meet his.

" Stay for a moment longer," be begged. ** I want
to talk to yott for a little while about this."

" There is no time now," she said hurriedly. " It is an
ines^ustible subject.**

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THE GREAT NAUDHEIM 147

^* Inexhaustible indeed," he answered, with an enigr
matic laugh.

She read his thcHights« She knew very well what was
in his mind, what was almost on his lips, and she strug-
gled to be free of him.

** Mr. Saton," she said, " I am sorry — but you must
really let me go."

He did not move.

" It is very hard to let you go," he murmured. " Can't
you — don't you realize a little that it is always hard
for me to see you go — to see you leave the world where
we have at least interests in common, to go back to a life
€if which I know so little, a life in which I have so small
a part, a life which is scarcely worthy of you, Pauline? '*

Again she felt a sort of physical impotence. She
struggled desperately against the loss of nerve power
which kept her there. She would have given anything in
the workl to have left him, to have run out of the ro<Hii
with a little shriek, out into the streets and squares she
knew so well, to breathe the air she had known all her
life, to escape from thda unknown emotion. She told her-
adf that she hated the man whose will kept her there.
She was sure of it. And yet — !

^ I do not understand you," she said, ^ £md I must,
I really must go. Can't you see that just now, at any
rate, I don't want to understand? " she added, fighting
all the time for her words. ^* I want to go. Please do
not keep me here against my will. Do you understand?
Let me go, and I will be grateful to you."

Somehow the strain seemed suddenly lightened. He

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148 THE MOVING FINGER

was only a very ordinary, rather doubtful sort of person
— a harmless but necessary part of interesting things.
He had moved toward the door, which he was holding
open for her to pass through.

** Thank you so much," she said, with genuine relief
in her tone. ^*I have stayed an unconscionable time,
and I found your Master delightful."

** You will come again? " he said softly. ** I want to
explain a little further what Naudheim was saying. I
can take you a little further, even, than he did to-day.''

** You must come and see me," she answered lightly.
** Remember that after all the world has conventions."

He stepped back on to the doorstep after he had
handed her into her carriage. She threw herself back
amongst the cushions with something that was like a sob
of relief. She had sensations which she could not an-
alyze — a curious feeling of having escaped, and yet
coupled with it a sense of something new and strange in
her life, something of which she was a little afraid, and
yet from which she would not willingly have parted.
She told herself that she detested the house which she
had left, detested the thought of that darkened room.
Nevertheless, she was forced to look back. He was
standing in the open doorway, from which the butler
had discreetly retired, and meeting her eyes he bowed
once more. She tried to smile unconcernedly, but failed.
She looked away with scarcely a return of his greeting.

** Home ! " she told the man. " Drive quickly."

Almost before her own door she met Rochester. The
sight of him was somehow or other an immense relief

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THE GREAT NAUDHEIM 149

to her. She fell back again in the world which she knew.
She stopped the carriage and called to him.

** Come and drive with me a little way," she begged.
** I am stifled. I want some fresh air. I want to talk to
jou. Oh, come, please ! **

Rochester took the vacant seat by her side at once.

"What is it?" he asked gravely. "Tell me. You
have had bad news? "

She shook her head.

" No ! " she said. " I am afraid — that is all! "

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CHAPTER XVm

THE Park into which they turned was almost
deserted. Pauline stopped the carriage and
got out.

" Come and walk with me a little way,'* she said to
Rochester. " We will go and sit amongst that wilderness
of empty chairs. I want to talk. I must talk to some-
one. We shall be quite alone there."

Rochester walked by her side, puzzled. He had never
seen her like this.

" I suppose I am hysterical," she said, clutching at his
arm for a moment as they passed along the walk.
** There, even that does me good. It's good to feel —
oh, I don't know what I'm talking about!" she ex-
claimed.

** Where have you been this afternoon?" he asked
gravely.

" To hear that awful man Naudheim," she answered.
" Henry, I wish I'd never been. I wish to Heaven you'd
never asked Bertrand Saton to Beauleys."

Rochester's face grew darker.

** I wish I'd wrung the fellow's neck the first day I
saw him," he declared, bitterly. ** But after all, Pauline,
you don't take this sort of person seriously? "

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ROCHESTER'S ULTIMATUM 151

^ I wish I didn't/' she answered

^'He's an infernal charlatan^" Rochester declared
^ I'm convinced of it, and I mean to expose him."

She shook her head.

"You can call him what you like," she said, **but
there is Naudheim behind him. There is no one in
Europe who would dare to call Naudheim a charlatan."

" He is a wonderful man, but he is mad," Rochester
said.

'^ No, he is not mad," she said " It is we who are
mad, to listen a little, to think a littk, to play a little
with the thoughts he gives us."

** I know of Naudheim only by reputation," Rochester
said. " And so far as regards Saton, nothing will con-
vince me that he is not an impostor."

She sighed.

"Hiere may be something of the charlatan in his
methods," she said, " but there is something else. Henry,
why can't we be content with the things that we know
and see and feel? "

He smiled bitterly.

" I am," he answered " I thank God that I have none
of that insane desire for probing and dissecting nature
to discover things which we are not fit yet to under-
stand, if, even, they do exist. If s a sort of spiritual
vivisection, Pauline, and it can bring nothing but dis-
quiet and unhappiness. Grant for a moment that Naud-
heim, and that even this bounder Saton, are honest, what
possible good can it do you or me to hang upon their
lips, to become their disciples? "

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153 THE MOVING FINGER

•* Oh, I don't know ! '' she answered. " Yet it's hid-
eously fascinating, Henry — hideously ! And the man
himself — Bertrand Saton. I can't tell what there ia
about him. I only know "

She broke off in the middle of her sentence. Rochester
caught her by the wrist.

" Pauline," he said, ** for God's sake, don't tell me
that that fellow has dared to make love to you."

" I don't know," she answered. " Sometimes I hate
the very sight of him. Sometimes I feel almost as you
do. And at others, well, I can't explain it. It isn't any
use trying."

" Pauline," he said, ** you see for yourself the state
to which you have been reduced this afternoon. Tell me,
is there happiness in being associated with any science
or any form of knowledge the study of which upsets
you so completely? There are better things in life.
Forget this wretched little man, and his melodramatic
talk."

** If only I could f " she murmured.

They sat side by side in silence. Strong man though
he was, Rochester was struggling fiercely with the wave
of passionate anger which had swept in upon him. For
years he had treated this woman as his dearest friend.
The love which was a part of his life lay deep down in
his heart, a thing with the seal of silence set upon it,
zealously treasured, in its very voicelessness a splendid
oblation to the man's chivalry. And now this unmen-
tionable creature, this Frankenstein of his own creation,
the boy whom he had pitchforked into life, had dared to

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ROCHESTER'S ULTIMATUM 153

be guilty of this unspeakable sacrilege. It was hard,
indeed, for Rochester to maintain his self-controL

^ Pauline," he said, ^* I cannot stand by and see your
life wrecked. You are too sane, too reasonable a woman
to become the prey of such a pitiful adventurer. Won't
you listen to me for a moment? ''

^ Indeed I am listening," she faltered.

" Give yourself a chance," he begged. ** Leave Eng-
land this week — to-morrow, if you can. Go right away
from here. You have friends in Rome. I heard your
cousin ask you not long ago to pay her a visit at her
villa on the Adriatic. Start to-morrow, and I promise
that you will come back a sane woman. You will be able
to laugh at Saton, to see through the fellow, and to
realise what a tissue of shams he's built of. You will
be able to feel a reasonable interest in anything Naud-
heim has to say. Just now you are unnerved, these men
have frightened you. Believe me that your greatest and
most effectual safety lies in flight."

A sudden hope lit up her face. She turned towards
him eagerly. She was going to consent — he felt it, he
was almost conscious of the words trembling upon her
lips. Already his own personal regrets at her absence
were beginning to cloud his joy. Then her whole ex-
pression changed. Something of the look settled upon
her features which he had seen when first she had
stopped the carriage. Her lips were parted, her eyes
distended. She looked nervously around as though she
were afraid that some one was following them.

** I cannot do that, Henry," she said. ** In a way it

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Z54 THB MOVING FINGER

would be a relief, but it is impossible* I cannot, in-
deed."

She led the way to the carriage. They walked in ab-
solute silence for nearly a minute. He felt that he had
lost a great part of his influ^ice over her and he was
bitter.

^^ Tell me why you almost consented,'' he asked, ab-
ruptly, ^^ and then changed your mind? In your heart
you must know that it is for your good."

^^ I only know," die answered, slowly, ^ that at first
I longed to say yes, and now, when I come to think of
it, I see that it is impossible."

^ You are going to allow yourself, then, to be the
prey of these morbid fancies? You are going to treat
this creature as a human being of your own order?
You are going to let him work upon your imagina-
tion?"

** It is no use," she said wearily. ** For the present, I
cannot talk any more about it. I do not understand my-
self at alL"

They stood for a moment by the carriage.

** We shall meet to-night," he reminded her.

She gave him a doubtful little smile.

"You are really coming to the Wintertons?** sEe
asked.

** I have promised," he answered. " Caroline has
bribed me. I am going to take you in to dinner."

** Will you drive home with me now? " she asked.

He shook his head.

** I have another call to make," he said, a little grimly.

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ROCHESTER'S ULTIMATUM 155

Saton was still in the half darkened library, sitting
with his back turned to the light, and his eyes fixed with
a curious stare into vacancy, when the door opened, and
Rochester entered unannounced. Saton rose at once to
his feet, but the interrogative words died away upon his
lips. Rochester's fair, sunburnt face was grim with
angry purpose. He had the air of a man stirred to the
very depths. He came only a little way into the room,
and he took up his position with his back to the door.

*' My young friend,'* he said, ** it is not many hours
since you and I came to an understanding of a sort. I
am here to add a few words to it."

Saton said nothing. He stood immovable, waiting.

** Whatever your game in life may be," Rochester con-
tinued, ** you can play it, for all I care, to the end. But
there is one thing which I forbid. I have come here so
that you shall understand that I forbid it. You can
make fools of the whole world, you can have them kneel-
ing at your feet to listen to your infernal nonsense —
the whole world save one woman. I am ashamed to men-
tion her name in your presence, but you know whom I
mean."

Saton's hps seemed to move for a moment, but he still
remained sil^t.

" Very well," Rochester said. " There shall be no ex-
cuse, no misunderstanding. The woman with whom I for-
bid you to have anything whatever to do, whom I order
you to treat from this time forward as a stranger, is
Pauline Marrabel."

Saton was still in no hurry to speak. He leaned a lit-

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X56 THE MOVING FINGER

tie forward. His eyes seemed to bum as though touched
with some mward fire.

** By what right," he asked, " do you come here and
dictate to me? You are not my father or my guardian.
I do not recognize your right to speak to me as one
having authority."

" It was I who turned you loose upon the world,"
Rochester answered. ** I deserve hanging for it."

** I diould be sorry," Saton said coldly, " to deprive
you of your deserts.**

**You have learned many things since those days,'*
Rochester declared. *^You have acquired the knack of
glib speech. You have become a past master in the arts
which go to the ensnaring of over-imaginative women.
You have mixed with quack spiritualists and self-styled
professors of what they term occultism. Go and practise
your arts where you will, but remember what I have told
you. Remember the person's name which I have men-
tioned. Remember it, obey what I have said, and you
may fool the whole world. Forget it, and I am your
enemy. Understand that."

"And you," Saton answered with darkening face,
*^ understand this from me, Rochester. I do not for a
moment admit your right to speak to me in this fashion.
I admit no obligation to you. We are simply man and
man in the world together, and the words which you
have spoken have no weight with me whatever."

** You defy me? " Rochester asked calmly.

" If you call that defiance, I do," Saton answered.

Rochester came a step further into the room.

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ROCHESTER'S ULTIMATUM 157

** Listen, my young friend,*' he said. ** You belong to
the modem condition of things, to the world which has
become just a little over-civilized. You may call me a
boor, if you like, but I want you to understand this. If
I fail to unmask you by any other means, I shall revert
to the primeval way of deciding such differences as lie
between you and me, the differences which make for hate.
I can wield a horse-whip with the strongest man living,
and I am in deadly earnest.'*

^* The lady whose name you have mentioned," Saton
said softly — ^**is she also your ward? You are re-
lated to her, perhaps? "

** She is the woman I love," Rochester answered. " Our
ways through life may lie apart, or fate may bring them
together. That is not your business or your concern.
When I tell you that she is the woman I love, I mean
you to understand that she is the woman whom I will
protect against all manner of evil, now and always. Re-
member that if you disregard my warning, in the spirit
or in the letter, so surely as we two live you will repent
it."

Saton crossed the room with noiseless footsteps. He
leaned toward the wall and touched an electric bell.

** Very well," he scud. ** You have come to deliver an
ultimatum, and I have received It. I understand perfectly
what you will accept as an act of war. There is nothing
more to be said, I think? '*

" Nothing," Rochester answered, turning to follow the
servant whom Saton's summons had brought to the door.

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CHAPTER XIX

TEOITBLi: BEBWING

SATON turned out of Bond Street, and climbed
the stairs of a little tea-shop with the depressed
feeling of a man who is expiating an offence
whidi he bitterly repents* Violet was waiting for him
at one of the tables shut off from the main room by a
sort of Japanese matting hanging from the cdling. He
resigned his stick and hat with a sigh to one of the trim
waitresses, and sat down opposite her.

" My dear Violet,'* he said, ** this is an unexpected
pleasure. I thought that Wednesday was quite one of
your busiest days.'*

" It is generally," she answered. " To tell you the
truth," she added, leaning across the table, ^^ I was jolly
glad to get away. I have a kind of fear, Bertrand, that
we are going to be a little too busy."

" What do you mean? " he asked sharply.

She nodded her head mysteriously.

" There have been one or two people in, in the last few
days, asking questions which I don't understand," she
told him. " One of them, I am pretty sure, was a de-
tective. He didn't get much change out of me," she
added, in a self-satisfied tone, ^^ but there's someone got
their knife into us. You remember the trouble down in
the Marylebone Road, when you "

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TROUBLE BREWING 159

"Don't!'' he interrupted. "I hate to think of that
time."

" Well, I tell you I bdieve there is something of the
sort brewing again," the woman said " I'll tell you more
about it later on."

Hie waitress brought their tea, which Violet carefully
prepared.

** Two pieces of sugar)" she said, " and no cream.
You see I hayai't forgotten, although it is not often we
have tea together now, Bertrand. You are becoming too
fashionable, I suppose," she added with a little frown.

" You know it isn't that," he Miswered hastily. ** It's
my work, nothing but my work. Gro on with what you
were telling me, Violet."

'^You needn't look so scared," she said, glancing
round to be sure that they were not overheard. ** The
only thing is that Madame must be told at once, and we
shall all have to be careful for a little time. I shut up
shop for the day as soon as I tumbled to the thing."

** I wonder if this is Rochester's doings," he muttered.

** The husband of the lady? " Violet enquired.

Saton nodded.

** He is my enemy," he said. ** Nothing would make
him happier than to have the power to strike a bldw like
this, and to identify us with the place in any way."

" I don't see how they could do that," she said med-
itatively. " I should be the poor sufferer, I suppose, and
you may be sure I shouldn't be like that other girl, who
gave you away. You are not afraid of that, are you,
Bertrand? Things are different between us. We are en-

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z6o THE MOVING FINGER

gaged to be marriecL You do not forget that, Ber-
trand?''

** Of course I do not,'* he answered.

**Well," she said, **we won't talk about the jwwt.
You are safe so far as I am concerned — for the pres-
ent, at any rate. But Madame must know, and your
friends in Charing Cross Road.''

" We will close the office to-morrow for a little time,"
Saton declared. ^^ It's no use running risks like this."

" The old lady must have made a tidy pile out of it,"
Violet declared, flourishing an over-scented handkerchief.
'* If she takes my advice, she will go quiet for a little
time. I can feel trouble when it's about, and I have felt
it the last few days."

" It is very good of you, Violet, to have sent for me
at once," he said. ** I know you won't mind if I hurry
away. It is very important that I see Madame."

** Of course," she agreed. " But when will you take me
out to dinner? To-night or to-morrow night? "

** To-morrow night," he promised, eager to escape.
** If anything happens that I can't, I'll let you know."

She laid her hand upon his arm as they descended the
stairs.

" Bertrand," she said, ** if I were you, Vd make it to-
morrow night. . . ."

He called a taximeter cab, and drove rapidly to Berke-
ley Square. In the room where she usually sat he found
Rachael, looking through a pile of foreign newspapers.

" Well? " she said, peering into his face. ** You have
bad news. I can see that. What is it? "

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TROUBLE BREWING x6i

" Helga has just sent for me,*' he answered. " She
says that she has had one or two mysterious visitors to-
day and yesterday. One of them she feels sure was a de-
tective.**

"Huntley has just telephoned up,** Rachael said
calmly. " Something of the same sort of thing happened
at the office in the Charing Cross Road. Huntley acted
like a man of sense. He closed it up at once, destroyed
all papers, and sent Dorrington over to Paris by the
morning train.**

Saton sat down, and buried his face in his hands.

^* Rachael,*' he said, ** this must stop. I cannot bear
the anxiety of it. Xt is terrible to feel to-day that one is
stretching out toward the great things, and to-morrow
that one is finding the money to live by fooling people,
by charlatanism, by roguery. Think if we were ever
connected with these places, if even a suspicion of it got
about! Think how narrow our escape was before! Re-
member that I have even stood in the prisoner's dock,
and escaped only through your cleverness, and an acci-
dent. It might happai again, Rachael ! '*

*' It shall not,** she answered. *' I would go there my-
self first. It is well for you to talk, Bertrand, but you
and I are neither of us fond of simple things. We must
live. We must have money.**

** We live extravagantly,** he said.

**A11 my life I have lived extravagantly,** she an-
swered. "Why should I change now? I have but a
few years to live. I cannot bear small rooms, or cheap
servants, or bad cooking.**

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i6a THE MOVING FINGER

** We have some money left," he said. " Come with me
into the country. We can Kve there for very little. Soon
my book will be ready. Then the lectures will begin.
There will be money enough when people begin to under-
stand."

**No!" she said. ^ There is only one way. I have
spoken of it to you before. You must marry, that foolish
girl Lois Champneyes."

** What do you know about her? " he asked, looking
up, startled.

" I have made inquiries," Rachael answered. ** It is
the usual thing in the countries I know of. She will be
of age in a short time, and she will have one hundred and
seventy thousand pounds. Upon that you C€in live until
our time comes, and you can afford to keep this house
going."

" I do not want to marry," he said.

Her hand shot out towards him — an accusing hand ;
her eyes flashed Are as she leaned forward, gripping the
arm of the chair with her other fingers.

" Listen," she said, ** I took you from the gutter. I
saved you from starvation. I showed you the way to
ease and luxury. I taught you things which have set
your brain working, which shall fashion for you, if you
dare to follow it, the way to greatness. I saved your
life. I planted your feet upon the earth. Your life is
mine. Your future is mine. What is this sacrifice that
I demand? Nothing! Don't refuse me. I warn you,
Bertrand, don't refuse me! There are limits to my pa-
tience as there are limits to my generosity and my affec-

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TROUBLE BREWING 163

tion. If you refuse, it can be but for one reason, and
that reason you will not dare to tell me. Do you refuse?
Answer me, now, I will have no more evasions."

** She would not marry me,*' he said. " I have not seen
her for days.'*

"Where is she?'* Rachael demanded.

" In the country, at Beauleys," he answered. " The
Rochesters have all left town yesterday or to-day, and
she went with them."

** Then into the country we go,'* she declared. " It is
an opportune time, too. We shall be out of the way if
troubles come from these interfering people. I do not
ask you again, Bertrand, whether you will or will not
marry this girL For the first time I exercise my rights
over you. I demand that you marry her. Be as faith-
less as you like. You are as fickle as a man can be, and
as shallow. Make love to her for a year, and treat her as
these Englishmen treat their housekeepers, if you will.
But marry her you must! It is the money we need —
the money ! What is that? '*

The bell was ringing from a telephone instrument
upon the table. Saton lifted it to his ear.

" There is a trunk call for you," a voice said. " Please
hold the line."

Saton waited. Soon a familiar voice came.

"Who is that?" it asked.

" Bertrand Saton," Saton answered.

** Listen," the voice said. ** I am Huntley. I speak
from Folkestone. I am crossing to-night to Paris. Dor-
rington is already on ahead. Someone has been employ-

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i64 THE MOVING FINGER

ing detectives to track us down. It commenced with that
letter — the one for which you settled terms yourself.
You hear? *'

**I hear,** Saton answered. '*Was it necessary for
you, too, to go?*'

" I cannot tell,** Huntley answered. " All I know is
that I have done pretty well the last two years, and I am
not inclined to figure in the police courts. If the thing
blows over, 1*11 be back in a few weeks. Every paper of
importance has been destroyed. I believe that you and
Madame are perfectly safe. At the same time, take my
tip. Go slow ! I*m off. I*ve only a minute for the boat.**

Saton laid down the receiver on the instrument.

*^ If it must be,** he said, turning to Rachael, ^' I will
go down to Blackbird*8 Nest to-morrow.**

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CHAPTER XX

FIEST BLOOD

LOIS came walking down the green path that led
^ to the wood, her head a little tilted back to watch
the delicate tracery of the green leaves against
the sky, her thoughts apparently far away. Suddenly
she came to a standstill, the color rushed into her
cheeks, her eyes danced with pleasure. Saton had come
suddenly round the comer, and was already within a few
feet of her.

** You? *' she exclaimed. ** Really you? I had no idea
that you had left London.''

He smiled as he took her hands.

^^ London was a desert," he said. '^ I have finished my
work for a few days, and I have brought my writing
down here.'*

** When did you come? ^ she asked.

" Last night,*' he answered. '* I was just wondering
how I could send a note up to you. Fortunately, I re-
membered your favorite walk."

" Did you really come to see me? " she murmured.

He laughed softly, and bent towards her. All her
hesitation and mistrust seemed to pass away. She lay
quietly in his arms, with her face upturned to his. He
kissed her on the lips. All the time his eyes were watch-
ing the path along which he had come.

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x66 THE MOVING FINGER

" Let us sit down," she said at last, gently disengag-
ing herself from him. " There are so many things I
want to ask you.*'

" And I too," he answered. ** I have something to say
— something I cannot keep to myself any longer."

He led the way to a fallen tree, a little removed from
the footpath. They were scarcely seated, however, be-
fore he turned his head sharply in the direction from
which he had come. His whole frame seemed to have be-
come suddenly rigid with an intense effort of listening.
He raised his finger with a warning gesture.

" Sit still," he whispered. ** Don't say anything.
There is someone coming."

Her hand fell upon his. They sat side by side in an
almost breathless silence, safely screened from observa-
tion unless the passers-by, whoever they might be,
should be unusually curious.

It was Pauline and Rochester who came — Pauline in
a tailor-made goftrn of dark green cloth — Pauline, slim,
tall and elegant. Rochester was bending toward her,
talking earnestly. He wore a tweed shooting suit, and
carried a gun under either arm.

" You see who it is?*' Lois whispered.

Saton nodded. His face had darkened, his cheeks were
almost livid. His eyes followed the two with an ex-
pression which terrified the girl who sat by his side.

"Bertrand," she whispered, "why do you look like
that?"

" Like what? " he asked, without moving his eyes from
the spot where those two figures had disappeared.

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FIRST BLOOD 167

She shivered a littk.

^^ You looked as though you hated Mr. Rochester*
You looked angry — more than angry. You f rigfat^ied
me."

*' I do hate him^" Saton an^rered slowly. *^ I hate him
as he hates me. We are enemies."

^ Yet you were not looking at him all the time," she
persisted. ^' You looked at Pauline, too. You d(m't hate
her, do you?"

He drew a little breath between his clenched teeth. If
only this child would hold her peace !

"No!" he said. " I do not hate Lady MarrabeL"

^' Is it because he has interfered between us," she asked
timidly, " that you dislike Mr. Rochester so much? Re*
member that very soon I shall be of age."

" He has no right to interfere in my concerns at all,"
Saton answered, evasively. ** Hush ! "

The two had halted at a little wooden gate which led
into the strip of field dividing the ^wo plantations.
Rochester was looking back along the footpath by which
they had come. They could hear his voice distinctly.

" Johnson must have got lost," he remarked, a little
impatiently. " I will leave my second gun here for him.
It is quite time I took up my place. The beaters will be
in the wood directly."

He leaned one of the guns against the stone wall, and
with the other under his arm, opened the gate for Pau-
line to pass through. They crossed the field diagonally,
and came to a standstill at a spot marked by a tiny flag.

All the time Saton watched than with fascinated eyes»

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z68 THE MOVING FINGER

The thoughts were rushing through his brain. He turned
to Lois.

" Dear/' he said, " I think that you had better run
along home. I will come up to the shrubbery after din-
ner, if you think that you can get out.*'

" But there is no hurry,'* she whispered. *' Can't we
sit here and talk for a little time, or go further back
into the wood? I know a most delightful little hiding-
place just at the top of the slate pit — an old keeper's
shelter."

Saton shook his head. He avoided looking at her.

** The beaters are in the other part of the wood al-
ready," he said. ** Very likely they will come this way,
too. If they see us together, they will tell Mr. Rochester.
I don't want him to know that I am here just yet."

She rose reluctantly.

" Dear me," she said, sighing, " and I thought that
we were going to have such a nice long talk ! "

**We will have it very soon," he whispered, a little
unsteadily. ** We must, dear. Remember that I have only
come down here so that we may see a little more of one
another. I will arrange it somehow. Only just now I
think that you had better run away home."

He kissed her, and she turned reluctantly away. She
stole through the undergrowth back into the green path.
Saton watched her with fixed eyes until she had turned
the comer and disappeared. Then he seemed at once to
forget her existence. He too rose to his feet, and stole
gently forward, moving very slowly, and stooping a
little so as to remain out of sight. All the time his eyes

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FIRST BLOOD 269

were fixed upon the gun, whose barrel was shining in the
sunlight.

From the other side of the wood there commenced an
intermittent f usilade. The shots were drawing nearer and
nearer. Rochester stood waiting, his gun held ready.
Pauline had retreated round the corner of the further
wood, beyond any possible line of fire.

Saton had reached the gate now, and was within reach
of the gun and the bag of cartridges, which were hang-
ing by a leather belt from the gate-post. He turned his
head, and looked stealthily along the path by which
Rochester had come. There was no one in sight, no
sound except the twittering of birds overhead, and the
rustling of the leaves. He sank on one knee, and his
hand closed upon the gun. The blood surged to his head.
There was a singing in his ears. He felt his heart thump-
ing as though he were suddenly seized with some illness.
Rochester's figure, tall, graceful, debonair, notwithstand-
ing the looseness of his shooting clothes, and his some-
what rigid attitude, seemed suddenly to loom large and
hateful before his eyes. He saw nothing else. He
thought of nothing else. It was the man he hated. It
was the man who understood what he was, the worst
side of him — the man whom his instincts recognised as
his ruthless and dangerous enemy.

The rush of a rabbit through the undergrowth,
startled him so that he very nearly screamed. He looked
around, pallid, terrified. There was no one in sight, no
sign of any life save animal and insect life in the wood
behind.

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270 THE MOVING FINGER

The stock of the gan came to his shoulder. His &i-
gers sought the trigger. Cautiously he thrust it through
tiie bars of the gate. Bending down, he took a long and
deliberate aim. The fates seemed to be on his side.
Rodiester suddenly stiiFened into attention, his gun
came to his shoulder, as with a loud whir a pheasant
flew out of the wood before him. The two reports rang
out almost simultaneously. The pheasant dropped to
the ground like a stone. Rochester's arms went up to the
dcies. He gave a little cry and fell over, a huddled heap,
upon the grass.

Saton, with fingers that trembled, tore out the ex-
ploded cartridge, seized another from the bag, thrust
it in, and replaced the gun against the wall. His breath
was coming in little sobs. Trees and sky danced before his
eyes. Once he dared to look — only once — at the spot
where Rochester was lying. His hands were outstretched.
Once he half raised himself, and then fell back. From
round the comer of the wood came Pauline. Saton heard
her cry — a cry of agony it seemed to him. He bent
low, and made his way back into the plantation, plung-
ing through ihe undergrowth imtil he reached a narrow
and little frequented footpath. He was deaf to all
sounds, for the thumping in his ears had become now
like a sledge-hammer beating upon an anvil. He was not
sure that he saw anything. His feet fled over the ground
mechanically. Only when he reached the borders of the
wood, and crossed the meadow leading to the main road,
he drew himself a little more upright. He must remem-
ber, he told himself fiercely. He must remember !

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FIRST BLOOD 171

He paused in the middle of the field, and looked back*
He was out of sight now of the scene of the tragedy.
Nothing was to be seen or heard but the low, musical
sounds of the late summer afternoon — the beat of a
reaping-machine, the humming of insects, the distant call
of a pigeon, the far-away bark of a farmhouse dog. The
shooting had ceased. By this time they must all know, he
reflected. He lit a cigarette, and inhaled the smoke with-
out the slightest apprehension of what he was doing. He
took a book from his pocket, held it before him, and
glanced at the misty page of verse. Thai he made his
way out on to the highroad, sauntering like a man anx-
ious to make the most of the brilliant sunshine, the clear
air.

There was no one in sight anywhere along the white,
dusty way. He crossed the road, and opened another
gate. A few minutes' climb, a sharp descent, and he was
safe within the gate of his own abode. He looked behind.
Still not a human being in sight — no soimd, no note of
alarm in the soft, sunlit air. He set his teeth and drew a
long breath. Then he closed the gate behind him, and
choosing the back way, entered the house without obser-
vation.

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CHAPTER XXI

AFEAID!

SATON wondered afterwards many times at fhe
extraordinary nonchalance with which he faced
the remainder of that terrible day. He wrote sev-
eral letters, and was aware that he wrote them carefully,
and well. He had his usual evening bath and changed his
clothes, making perhaps a little more careful toilet even
than usual.

Rachael, who was waiting for him when he descended
to dinner, even remarked upon the lightness of his «tep«

" The country suits you, Bertrand,'* she said. *f It
suits you better than it does nxe. You w^ lik^ |t boy,
and there is color in your cheeks.** t

" The sun,'* he muttered. " I always tan quickly.'*

"Where have you been to?'* she askedi *

'* I have been walking with Miss Champntyes,** he an-
swered. ^

Rachael nodded. '

"And your friend at Beauleys?** she asked, with a
little sneer. "What if he had seen you, eh? You are
very brave, Bertrand, for he is a big man, and you are
small. I do not think that he loves you, eh? But what
about the girl? **

A servant entered the room, and Saton with relief

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•

AFRAID! 273

abandoned the conversation. She returned to it, how-
ever, the moment they were alone.

" See here, my son,'* she said, " remember what I have
always told you. One can do without anything in this
world except money. We have plenty for the moment, it
is true, but a stroke of ill-fortune, and our income might
well vanish. Now listen, Bertrand. Make sure of this
girl's money. She is of age, and she will marry you."

'* Her guardian would never give his consent," Saton
said.

'* It is not necessary," bis companion answered. " I
have been to Somerset House. I have seen the will. One
hundred thousand pounds she has, in her own right, un-
alienable. For the rest, let her guardian do what he will
with it. With a hundred thousand pounds you can rest
£car ^ while. We might even give up ^"

'^Uton struck the tablej^ith his clenched fist.

*f Bji^careftfl," he sai^'" I hate to hear these things
mentioned. The windows are open, and the walls are
thin. Theisp might be listeneA anywhere."

Her withered lips drew back into a smile.' ,She was not
pleasant just then to look upon.

" I forgot," she muttered. " We are devotees of sci-
ence now in earnest. You are right. We must run no
risks. Only remember, however careful we are, you are
' always liable to — to the same thing that happened be-
fore. It took a thousand pounds to get you off then."

Saton rose from his seat impatiently. He walked rest-
lessly across the room.

** Don't ! " he exclaimed. " Can't we live without men-

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174 THE MOVING FINGER

tioning those things? I am nervous to-night. Hideoiislj
nervous ! " he added, under his breath.

He stood before the open window, his face set, his
eyes riveted upon a spot in the distance, where the great
white front of Beauleys flashed out from amongst the
trees* Its windows had caught the dying sunlight, and a
flood of fire seemed to be burning along its front. The
flag floated from the chimneys. There was no ugn of
any disturbance. The quiet stilhiess of evening which
rested upon the landscape, seemed everywhere undia*
turbed. Yet Saton, as he lo<^ed, shivered.

Down in the lane a motor-car rushed by. His eyes fol-
lowed it, fascinated. It was one of the Beauleys cars,
and inside was seated a tall, spare man, white-faced and
serious, on whose knees rested a black case. Saton knew
in a moment that it was one of the doctors who had been
summoned to Beauleys, by telephone and telegraph, from
all parts.

"You are watching the house of your patron," she
said, drily.

"Patron no longer!" Saton exclaimed, rolling him-
self another cigarette. "We are enemies, declared ene-
mies — So far as he is concerned, at any rate."

" You are a fool ! " the woman said. " He might still
have been useful. You quarrel with people as though it
were worth the trouble. To speak angry words is the
most foolish thing I know."

Saton glanced at the dock upon the mantelpiece.

" I am going out for an hour," he said.

^' To Beauleys? " she asked, mockingly.

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AFRAID f 275

^^Scmiewhere near there,'* he answered. "Good
night!''

He strolled out, hatkss, and with no coyering over his
thm Uack dinner-coat« He crossed the meadow, and
dimbed the little range of broken, rocky hills, from
which one could see down ey«n into the flower-gardens of
Beauleys. He could see there no sign of (fisturbance,
saTe that there were two motor-cars before the door.
Sfewly he made his way to the lodge gates, and passing
through approached the house. There were many li^ts
burning. A certain repressed air of excitement was cer-
tainly visible. Saton longed, yet dared not, to ask for
news from the people at the lodge. At any rate, the
blinds were still up, and the doctors there. Probably the
man was alive. Perhaps, even, he might recovar!

He strudc off from the drive, and follow^ a narrow
path, which led at first between two great banks of
rhododendrons, and finally wound a circuitous way
through an old and magnifiooit shrubbery. He reached
a path whence he could command a view of the house,
and where he was himself unseat. He looked at his
watch. He was five minutes late, but as yet there was no
sign of Lois. He composed hhnself to wait, watching
the birds come home to roost, and the insects, whom the
heat had brought out of the earth, crawl away into
oblivion. The air was sweet with the smell of flowers.
From a little further afield came the more pungent odor
of a fire of weeds. The great front of the house, ablaze
though it was with li^ts, seemed almost deserted. No
one entered or issued from the hall door.

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176 THE MOVING FINGER

Half an hour pauecL There was no sign of Lois.
Then he saw her come, very slowly — walking, as it
seemed to him, like one afraid of the ground upon which
she trod. As she came nearer, he saw that her face was
ghastly pale. Her eyes, which wandered restlessly to the
right and to the left, were frightened, dilated. The thing
had been a shock to her, of course.

He stepped a little way out from the shrubs, showing
himself cautiously. She stopped short at the sight of
him.

** Lois I** he cafled softly.

She looked at him, and a sudden wave of terror passed
across her face. She made no movement towards him.
He himself was wordless, struck dumb by her appear-
ance. She gave a little cry. What the word was that she
uttered, he could not tell. Then suddenly turning round,
she fled away.

He watched her with fascinated eyes, watched her
feet fly over the lawns, watched her, without a single
backward glance, vanish at last through the small side
door from which she had first issued. He wiped the
moisture from his forehead, and a little sob broke from
his throat. The vision of her face was still before him.
He knew for a certainty what it was that had terrified
her. She had started to keep her engagement, but she
was afraid. She was afraid of him. Something that he,
had done had betrayed him. She knew! His liberty —
perhaps his life — was in this girPs hands !

He crept out of the shrubbery and staggered down
the drive, making his way homeward across the hills as

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AFRAID f 177

swiftly as his uncertain footsteps would take him. It
was dusk now, and he met no one. Yet his heart beat at
every sound — the clanking of a chain, attached to the
fetlock of a wandering horse, the stiU, mournful cry of
an owl which floated out from the plantation, the clatter
of the small stones which his own feet dislodged as he
feverishly climbed the rocks. Above him, on the other
side of the road, towered the hill where he had sat and
dreamed as a boy, where Rochester had come and en-
couraged him to prate of his ambitions.

He looked away from its dark outline with a little
groan. Up on the hillside flashed the lights of Black-
bird's Nest. He stretched out his hands and groped on-
wards*

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CHAPTER XXn

SATOK REASSERTS HIMSELF

ROCHESTER asked only one question during
those few days when he lay between life and
death* He opened his eyes suddenly, and mo-
tioned to the doctor to stoop down.

" Who shot me? *' he asked.

^^ It was an accident," the doctor assured him, sooth-
ingly.

Rochester said no more, but his lips seemed to curl for
a moment into the old disbelieving smile. Then the strug-
gle began. In a week it was over. A magnificent con-
stitution, and an unshattered nerve, triumphed. The
doctors one by one took their departure. Their task
was over. Rochester would recover.

" Who shot mef "

The doctor had seen no reason to keep silence, and this
question of Rochester's had created something like a
sensation as it travelled backwards and forwards.
Rochester had been shot in the left side, in the middle of
a field, where no accident of his own causing seemed pos-
sible. One barrel only of his gun had been fired, and to
account for that a cock pheasant lay dead within a few
feet of him. The shooting-party were all old and expe-
rienced sportsmen. The gun which Rochester had left

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SATON REASSERTS HIMSELF 179

leaning against the gate was discovered exactly as he had
left it there, loaded in both barrels. There was not the
ghost of a clue.

Only Lois kept to her room for three days, until she
could bear it no longer. Then she walked out a little way
toward the woods, and met Saton. He recognised her
with a shock. He himself, especially now it was known
that Rochester would live, had rapidly recovered from
the fit of horrors which had seized him on that night. It
was not so with Lois. Her cheeks were ghastly pale, and
her eyes beringed. She walked like one recovering from a
long illness, and when she saw Saton she screamed.

He held out his hand, and noticed with swift compre-
hension her first instinctive withdrawal.

*♦ Bertrand 1 " she cried. " Oh, Bertrand 1 "

" What do you mean ? ** he asked, hoarsely.

** You know what I mean,** she answered. ** I don't
want to touch you, but I must or I shall fall. Let me
take your arm. We will go and sit down."

They sat side by side on the trunk of a fallen tree. A
small stream rippled by at their feet. The meadow which
it divided was dotted everywhere with little clumps of
large yellow buttercups. She sat at a little distance from
him, and she kept her eyes averted.

^Bertrand," she murmured, ^what does it mean?
Tell me what I saw that afternoon. You took up ihe
gun. Was it an accident? But no,'' she added, *4t is ab-
surd to ask tliat ! "

** You saw me ? " he exclaimed quickly. *♦ You believe
that you saw me touch that gun? "

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28o THE MOVING FINGER

She nodded.

** I hated to go and leave you there,*' she said^ " I
waited about behind those thick blackthorn trees, hop-
ing that you might come my way. I saw you creep up
to the gun. I saw you raise it to your shoulder. Even
then I had no idea what you were going to do. After-
wards I saw the smoke and the flash. I heard the report,
and Mr. Rochester's cry as he fell. I saw you slip a fresh
cartridge into the gun, and go stealing away. Bertrand,
I have not slept since. Tell me, was it a nightmare? ^

^^It was no nightmare,'' he answered. ^'I shot him,
and I wish that he had died ! "

She looked at him with horror.

** Bertrand," she faltered, " you can't mean it ! "

** Little Lois," he answered, " I do. You do not under-
stand what hatred is. You do not understand all that it
may mean — all that it may cause. He is my enemy, that
man, and I am his. It is a dud between us, a duel to the
death. The first blow has been mine, and I have failed.
You will see that it will not be long before he strikes
back."

^^ But this is horrible! " she muttered.

** Horrible to you, of course ! " he exclaimed. ** Hatred
is a thing of which you can know nothing. And yet there
it is. People might think that he was my benefactor. He
gave me money to go out and find my level in the world,
gave it to me with the bitter, cynical advice — advice
that was almast a stipulation — that if I failed, I ceased
to live. I did fail in every honest thing I touched," he
continued, bitterly. " Then I tried a bold experiment. It

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I

SATON REASSERTS HIMSELF x8z

was the last thing offered, the last wonderful chance. I
took it, and I won. Then I returned. I paid him back the
money which he had lent me — I did my best to seem
grateful. It was of no use. He mistrusted me from the
first. In his own h^use I was the butt for his scornful
speeches. I was even bidden to leave. I ventured to speak
to the woman with whom he is slavishly in love, and
he came to me like a fury. If I had been a hairdresser
posing as a duke, he could not have been more violent.
He wanted me to promise never to speak to her again —
her or you. I refused. Then he declared war, and, Lois,
there are weak joints in my armor. You see, I admit
it to you — never to him. When he finds his way there,
he will thrust. That is why I struck first.**

She shook her head sadly.

"Ah, but I do not understand!** she said. "He is
very stem and very quiet, but he is a just man. I have
never known him to find fault where there was none."

** There are faults enough in my life,** Saton aiir
swered. " I have never denied it. But I have had to fight
with my back to the wall. I shall win. I am not afraid
of a thousand Mr. Rochesters. I am gathering to my
hands — no, I will not talk to you about thcd: ! Lois, I
am more anxious about you than Mr. Rochester. I am
afraid that you will hate me for always now.**

"No!** she said. "I cannot do that, I cannot hate
you. But I do not wish to see you any more. As long
as I live, I shall see you kneeling there, with your finger
upon the trigger of that gun. I shall see the fiash, I shall
see him throw up his hands and fall. It was hideous ! '*

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i89 THE MOVING FINGER

Saton passed his hand across his forehead. Her words
h*d touched his keen imagination. The horror of the
scene was upon him, too, once more.

•* Don't I " he begged — " don't ! Lois ! ''

«Well?'' she asked.

** You will not speak of this to anj<me? '*

^^ No ! " she answered, sadly, leaning a little forward,
with her head resting upon her clasped hands. *^ I don't
suppose that I shalL If he had died, it would have been
diiFerent. Now that he is going to get well, I suppose I
shall try to forget.'*

^ To forget," he munomred, trying to take her hand.

She drew it away with a shiver.

** No ! " she said. ** That is finished. I had to see you.
I had to talk to you. Gk> away, please. I cannot bear to
see you any more. It is too terrible — too terrible ! *'

A bom cajoler of women, he forced into play all h»
powers. He whispered a flood of words in her ear. His
own Toice shook, his eyes were soft. He pleaded as one
beside himself. Lois — Lois whom he had found so seDr-
sitive, so easily moved, so gently affectionate — remained
like a stone. At the end of all hb pleai£ngs she simply
looked away.

^Do ycm mmd," she asked, ^^ leaving me? Please!
Please!*'

He gc^ up and went. Drfemt was apparent enough,
although it was unexpected* Lois stole bac^ to Hie house
— stole back to her room and locked the door.

Saton walked home across the hiUs, with white face and
set eyes. He looked neith^ to the right nor to the lef t.

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SATON REASSERTS HIMSELF iSq

and wken he amyed at Blackhird^i Nest, he walked
straight into the long, old-fashioned room on the ground
floor, which he caUed his Hbrary, and M^here Rachael gen-
erally, sat.

She was there, crouching ovor tl» fire, when he en-
t^ed, and looked around with frowning face.

''Bertrax^" she said, ''I hate tUs country life. Even
the sunshine mocks. Thane is no warmth in it, and the
winds are cold. I must have warmth. I shall stay here no
longer.'*

He threw a log on to the fire^ and turned around.

** listen," he said. " The jpri Lois Champneyes — I
hare lost my hold of her. She knows someihing about
the accident to Rodiester."

^'Bungler!'* the woman muttered^ ^*6o on. Tell me
how you lost your power.**

^^ I cannot tdU** he answered. ^^ I was in an unsettled
mood. I think thai I was a little afraid. She spoke of
that afternoon. It all came back to me. I am sure that I
^ was afraid^*' he added, passing has haad across his fore-
head.

She leaned toward him and her eyes glittered, hard
and bright, from their pardunent-iyce setting.

" Bertrand,'* dbe said, ** you talk hke a coward. What
are you going to do? **

** To bring her here,** he answered hoarsdy. " She has
gone back to Beauleys. She is passing up through the
plantation, on her way to the house^ perhaps, at this
very moment. She wwe whiter and she carried her hat in
her hand. There were rims under her eyes. She walks

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x84 THE MOVING FINGER

slowly. She is afraid — a little hysterical. You see
her? '»

He pointed out of the window. The woman nodded.

" Sit down,^ she muttered. ** We shall see."

He sank into a low chair, with his face turned toward
the window. No further words passed between them.
They sat there till the sun sank behind the hills, and the
dusk began to cast shadows over the land.

A servant came and said something about dinner.
Rachael waved her away.

^^ In an hour, or an hour and a half," she said.

The shadows grew deeper. Rachad's face seemed un-
changed, but Saton had grown so pale that his fixed
eyes seemed to have become unnaturally large. Some-
times his lips moved, though the sounds which he ut-
tered never resolved themselves into speech. At last
Rachael rose to her feet. She pointed out of the window.
Saton gave a little gasp.

^^ She is there? " he asked, breathlessly.

^ She OHnes,^ Rachael answered. ^ See that you do not
lose your i>ower again. I am exhausted. I am going to
rest."

She passed out of the room. Saton went and stood
before the low window. Slowly, and with hesitating foot-
steps, Lois came up the path, lifted the latch of the lit-
tle gate, and stood in the garden, close to a tall group of
hollyhocks.

Saton went out to her.

" You have come to tell me that you are sorry? " he
said.

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SATON REASSERTS HIMSELF 185

" Yes ! " she answered.

" You did not mean what you said? "

"No!''

** Come in," he whispered.

He laid his fingers upon her hand, and she followed
him into the room. She was very pale, and she was
breathing as though she had been runnings He passed
his arm around her waist.

** You are not angry with me any longer? " he whis-
pered in her ear. ** You wiU kiss me ? "

** If you wish,*' she answered.

He looked into her eyes for a moment. Then he took
her into his arms.

** Dear Lois," he whispered, " you must never be so
unkind to me again."

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CHAPTER XXm

AN UKFI2ASAVT SVCOUNTXE

ROCHESTER and Pauline were driving through
the country lanes in a small, old-fashioned pony
carriage. Westward, the clouds were still stained
by a briUiant sunset. The air was clear and brisk, chill
with the invigorating freshness of the autumn evening.
Already the stillness had come, the stillness which is the
herald of night. The laborers had deserted the fields,
the wind had dropped, a pleasant smell of burning weeds
from a bonfire by the side of the road crept into the air.
The silence was broken for a moment by the cry of a
lonely bird, drifting homewards on wings that seemed
almost motionless.

Rochester was quite convalescent now, and with the aid
of a stick was able to walk almost as far as he chose.
Pauline had remained at Beauleys, and her presence had
divested those last few weeks of all their irksbmeness.
He stole a glance at her as she leaned back in the car-
riage. She was a little pale, perhaps, and her eyes were
thoughtful, but the lines of her mouth were soft. There
was no shadow of unhappiness in her face, none of that
look which in London had driven him almost to madness.

His fingers closed upon hers. They were walking up-
hill, and the pony took little guiding.

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AN UNPLEASANT ENCOUNTER 187

** Yoii are sure, Pamline," lie asked, " that you are not
bored yet with the country? '*

*^ I am quite sure," she answ^ed.

Something in her tone puxiled him. He looked at her
agaiQt long and fixedly. Her eyes met his, they answered
his unspoken question.

^ I suppose," she said, ^ that I should look happier.
I have be«i content. I am content stiU. I suppose it is all
one ought to expect from life."

** There are other things," he answered, ** but not for
us, Pauline — not yet."

" Life is a yery perplexing matter," she declared.

He shook his head.

" There is no perplexity about it," he declared. ** Its
riddle is easily enough solved. The trouble is that the
fetters which bind u» are sometimes beyond our power to
break."

** If we were free," she murmured, *• you and I know
very well whither we should turn. And yet, Henry, are
you sure, are you quite, quite sure that there is nothing
in life greater ev^i than love? "

" If there is," he answered, " we will go in search of
it, hand in hand, you and I together."

" Yes," she echoed simply, " we will go in search of it.
But first of all we must find someone to light our torch."

He diook the rdns a little impatiently, but they were
not yet at the top of the hill, and the pony crawled on,
undisturbed.

^ Dear Pauline," he said, ^' sometimes lately I fancied
that you have seemed a little morbid. I have lived longer

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288 THE MOVING FINGER

tiian you. I have lired long enough to be sure of one
thing,''

*« And that is? " she asked.

" That all real happiness,** he said, ** eren the every-
day forms of content, is to be found amongst the sim-
ple truths of life. Lore is the greatest of them. Look at
me, Pauline. Don't you think that even though we live
our lives apart, don't you think that to me the world is
a different place when you are near? "

She looked into his face a little wistfully. Then she
let her hand rest on his.

" You are so steadfast," she said — ^ so strong, and
so certain of yourself. Forgive me if I seem a little rest-
less. One loses one's balance sometimes, thinking and
thinking and wondering."

They were at the top of the hill, and the pony paused.
Rochester stepped out.

" Come," he said, " I will take you for a little walk.
We will leave Peter here."

He unlocked a gate with a key which he took from his
pocket, and hand in hand they ascended a steep path
which led between a grove of pine trees. Out once more
into the open, they crossed a patch of green turf and
came to another gate, set in a stone wall. This also
Rochester opened. A few more yards, and they climbed
up to the masses of tumbled rock which lay about on the
summit of the hiU.

** Turn round," he said. " You have seen this view
many a time in the daylight. You can see it now fading
away into nothingness."

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AN UNPLEASANT ENCOUNTER 189

Thej stood hand in hand, looking downwards. Mists
rose from along the side of the river, and stood about in
the vallejs. The lights began to twinkle here and there.
Afar off, like some nursery toy, they saw a train, with its
line of white smoke, go stealing across the shadowy land-
scape.

Rochester's face darkened with a sudden reminiscence.

** It was here," he said, " that I first saw your friend
the charlatan."

" My friend? " she murmured.

" More yours than mine, at any rate," he answered.
^He sat with his back against that rock, and if ever
hunger was written into a boy's face, it was there in his
pale cheeks, burning in his eyes."

" He was very poor, then? " she asked.

"He was very poor," Rochester answered, "but it
was not hunger for food, it was hunger for life that one
saw there. He had been down at the Convalescent Home,
recovering from some illness, and the next day he was
going back to his work — -work which he hated, which
made him part of a machine. You know how many mil-
lions there are who live and die like that — who must
always live and die like that. They are part of the great
system of the world, and nine-tenths of them are con-
tent."

" You set him free," she murmured.

" I did," Rochester answered. " It was a mistake."
^ " You cannot tell," she said. " I know that you mis-
trust him. You are very, very English, dear Henry, and
you have so little sympathy with those things which you

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190 THE MOVING FINGER

do not underhand — whkh do com^ perhaps, a UtUe
near what jou call dMurlataniBgu Still, though joo may
deny it as mudi as you like^ there are many, many things
in the world — things, even, in connection witii our daily
fires, which are absolutdy, wonderfi:dly mysterious.
There are new things to be learned, Henry. Bertrand
Saton may be a sdf-decdTar. He may even deserve all
the hard things you can say of him, but there are clev-
erer people than you and I who do not think so.''

" Dear," Rochester answered, " I did not bring you
here to talk of Bertrand Saton. To tell you the truth,"
he added, ^*I eTen hate to hear his name upon your
fips."

There was no time for her to answer. From the
shadow of the rock against which they leemed, he rose
with a subtle alertness which seemed somdK)w a little un-
canny — as though, indeed, he had risen from under the
ground upon which they stood.

" I heard my name," he said. " Forgive me if I am
interrupting you. I had no wish to play the eaves*
dropper."

Paufine took a quick step backwards. Even in that
tense moment of surprise, Rodiester found himself able
to notice tl^ color fading from her cheeks. He tnmftd
upon the newcomer, and there was something like fury
in his tone.

"What the devil are you doing here, Saton?" he
asked.

Baton's tone was almost apologetic.

** I did not know," he said, " that I was f orbiddai to

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AN UNPLEASANT ENCOUNTER 191

mSk upon your lands. I am often here, and this k my
favorite hoiur.**

Rochester laughed, a little harsUy.

• You like to come back,** he said ** You like to sit
here, perhaps, and think. Wdl, I do not envy you. You
sat here and thought, year» ago. You built a house of
dreams here, unless you lied. You come here now, per-
haps, to ccnnpare it with the house of gewgaws which
you have built, and in which you dwelL"

Saton did not for a moment shrink. In his heart he
felt that it was one of his inspired moments. There was
confidence alike in his bearing and in his gentle reply.

** Why not? '* he asked. ** Why idiould you take it for
granted that there is so much aihiss in my Hf e, that I
have fallen so far away from those dreams? It may not
be so," he continued. ^Remember that the man who
Kves, and comes a little nearer toward knowledge, has
nothing to be ashamed of. It is the man who Uves, and
eats and drinks and sleeps, and knows no more when his
head presses the pillow at ni^t than when the sun woke
him in the morning, it is that man who is ignoble. You
have spokoi of the past,** he added, turning face to face
with Rochester. ** Once more I will remind you of your
own words. * The aidy crime m life ii failure. If the
crash comes, and the pieces lie arotmd yoUj swim out to
sea too far, and sink heneaih the we/oes forever I * Wasn't
thai your advice? Not your exact words, perhaps, but
wasn't that what you told the boy who sat here and
dreamed?**

Rochester shrugged his shoulders slightly.

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zga THE MOVING FINGER

"Youth,'* he said, "may be forgiven much. Man-
hood must accept its own responsibilities."

Saton smiled griml j.

" Always the same,'' he said* •* All the time you play
with the truth, Rochester, as though it were a glass ball
committed into your keeping, and yours alone. Don't
you know that the one inspired period of life is youth
— youth before it is sullied with experience, youth which
knows everything, fears nothing — youth which has the
eyes of the clairvoyant? "

Rochester frowned.

**Your tongue goes glibly to-night," he remarked.
" Talk to the shadows, my friend. Lady Marrabel and
I are going."

" I did not bid you come," Saton answered. " This is
my spot, and my hour. It was you who intruded."

" The fact that this is my property ^" Rochester

began, gently.

" Is of no consequence," Saton answered. " You may
buy the earth upon which we stand, but you cannot buy
the person whose feet shall press it, or the thoughts that
rise up from it, or the words that are breathed from it,
or the hopes and passions which go trembling from it to
the skies. Gk> away and jog homeward behind your fat
pony, but ^

" Well, sir? " Rochester asked, turning suddenly.

Saton's eyes did not meet his. They were fixed upon
Pauline's, and Pauline was as white as death.

"Take her, too, if you will," Saton said slowly.
" Take her, too, if she will go."

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AN UNPLEASANT ENCOUNTER 193

** I am going this instant," Pauline cried, with a sud-
den nervous passion in her tone. " Come, Henry, come
away. I hate this place. Come away quickly.'*

Rochester caught her hand. It was cold as a stone.
She was pale, and she commenced to tremble.

" Take her,'* Saton said, " if she will go. Take her,
because you are strong and she is weak. Lead her by
the arm, guide her as you will, only be sure that you
leave nothing with me."

He sat down upon the rock, and with folded arms
looked away from them — even as though they had not
existed — across to the world of shadows and vague
places. Rochester passed his arm through Pauline's, and
led her down the hill. Her hands were cold. She seemed
to lift her feet as though they had been of lead. She did
not look at him. Always she looked ahead. She moved
slowly and heavily. When he spoke, her lips answered
him languidly. Rochester felt an intense and passionate
anger burning in his veins. The vague disquiet of an
hour ago had settled down into something definite. She
was his no longer! Something had come between them!
Even though he might take her into his arms, might hold
her there, and dare anyone in the world to take her from
him, it was her body only, the shadow of herself. Some-
thing — some part of her seemed to have flitted away.
He asked himself with a sudden cold horror, whether in-
deed it had remained by the side of that silent figure,
blotted out now from sight, who sat upon the rocks
while the darkness fell about him !

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CHAPTER XXIV

XOia 18 OBSOISNT

LOIS and her companion stopped on the sununit
of the hill to look at the rolling background of
woods, brilliant still with their autumn color-
ing. The west wind had blown her hair into disorder, but
it had blown also the color back into her cheeks. H^
eyes were bright, and her laughter infectious. Her c<mi-
panion stooped down and passed his arm through hers,
looking into her face admiringly.

" Lois,** he said, " this is the first day I have seen you
like your old self. I can't tell you how glad I am."

She smiled.

** I wasn't aware, Maurice," she scud, " that I have
been very different. I have had headaches now and then,
lately. Fancy having a headache an afternoon like
this ! " she added, throwing back her head once more,
and breathing in the fresh, invigorating air.

*^ You ought to have seen a doctor," her companion
declared. " I told Lady Mary so the other day."

" Rubbish ! " Lois exclaimed, lightly.

" Nothing of the sort," Captain Vandermere replied.
^^ I was beginning to worry about you. I almost fan-
cied ^"

"Well?"

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LOIS IS OBEDIENT 195

** It almost seemed,*' he continued, a little awkwardly,
** as though you had something on your mind. You
seemed so queer every now and then, little girl,'' he
added, ^ I do hope that if there was anything bothering
you, you'd tell me all about it. We're old pals, you
know."

She laughed — not quite naturally.

** My dear Maurice," she said, " of course there has
been nothing of that sort the matter with me! What
could I have on my mind? "

^ No love affairs, eh? " he asked, stroking his fair
DMrnstache.

She shook her head thoughtfully.

** No ! " she said. ** No love affairs."

He tightened his grasp upon her arm. He had an idea
that he was being very diplomatic indeed. And Lady
Mary had begged him to find out whatever was the mat-
ter with poor dear Lois !

•* WeU," he said, "I wn j^ad to hear it. To teU you
flie truth, I have been very jealous lately."

^ You jecdous ! " she exclaimed, mockin^^y.

*• Fact, I assure you," he answered.

••Captain Maurice Vandermere jealous!" she re-
peated, looking up at hira witii dancing eyes — ** abso-
lutely the most popular bachelor in London ! And jeal-
ous of me, too ! "

**Is that so very wonderful, Lois?" he asked. "We
iave been pretty good friends, you know."

She felt his hand upon her arm, and she looked away.

**Yes," she said, **we have been friends, only we

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196 THE MOVING FINGER

haven't seen much of one another the last month or bo,
have we? ^

•*It hasn't been my fault,'* he declared "I really
couldn't get leave before, although I tried hard. I
shouldn't have been here now, to tell you the truth,
Lois," he went on, " but Lady Mary's been frightening
me a bit."

^* About me? " Lois asked.

" About you," he assented.

" What has she been saying? "

"Well, nothing definite," Captain Vandermere an-
swered, " but of course you know she's an awful good pal
of mine, and she did write me a line or two about you. It
seems there's some young fellow been about down here
whom she isn't very stuck on, and she seemed to be
afraid ^"

" Well, go on," Lois said calmly.

" Well, that he was making the running with you a
bit," Captain Vandermere declared, feeling that he was
getting into rather deeper waters. •* Of course, I don't
know anything about him, and I don't want to say any-
thing against anybody who is a friend of yours, but
from all that I have heard he didn't seem to me to be the
sort of man I fancied for my little friend Lois to get
— well, fond of."

** So you decided to come down yourself," Lois con-
tinued.

" I decided to come down and say something which I
ought to have said some time ago," Captain Vandermere
continued, " only you see you are really only a child»

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LOIS IS OBEDIENT 197

and you've got a lot more money than I have, and you
are not of age yet, so I thought Vd let it be for a bit.
But you know I'm fond of you, Lois,"

" Are you? " she asked, artlessly.

^<You must know that," he continued, bending over
her. " I wonder ^*

" Are you aware that we are standing on the top of a
hill," Lois said, ^* and that everybody for a good many
miles round has a perfectly clear view of us? "

" I don't care where we are," he declared. " I have got
to go on now. Lois, will you marry me? "

" Is this a proposal? " She laughed nervously.

*^ Sounds like it," he admitted.

She was silent for several moments. Into her eyes there
had come something of that look which had sent Lady
Mary into her room to write to Captain Vandermere, and
bid him come without delay. The color had gone. She
seemed suddenly older — tired.

" Oh, I don't know ! " she said. '' I think I should like
to, but I can't ! — no, I can't ! "

They began to descend the hill. He kept his arm in
hers.

** Why not? " he asked. " Don't you care for me? '*

"I — I don't know," she answered. " I don't know
whether I care for anybody. Wait, please. Don't speak
to me for several moments."

Their path skirted the side of a ploughed field, and
then through a little gate they passed into a long, strag-
gling plantation. Directly she was under the shelter of
the trees, she burst into tears.

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198 THE MOVING FINGER

^* Don't come near me," she begged. ^^ Leave me alone
for a moment. I shall be better directly."

He disregarded her bidding to the extent of placing
his arm around her waist. He made no attempt, however,
to draw her hands away from her face, or stop her tears.

" Little girl," he said, ** I knew that there was some
trouble. It is there in your dear, innocent little face for
anyone to see who cares enough about you to look.
When you have dried those eyes, you must tell me all
about it. Remember that even if you won't have me for
a husband, we are old enough friends for you to look
upon me as an elder brother."

She dried her eyes, and looked up at him with a hope-
less little smile.

" You are a dear," she said, ** and I am very fond of
you. I don't know what's happened to me — at least I
do know, but I can't tell anyone."

" Is it," he asked gravdy, " that you care about this
person? "

" Oh, I don't know ! " she answered. ** I hope not. I
don't know, I'm sure. Sometimes I feel that I do, and
sometimes, when I am sane, when I am in my right mind,
I know that I do not. Maurice," she begged, ^^ help me.
Please help me."

His face cleared.

" I'll help you right enough, little girl," he answered
^* Just listen to me. Tm not going to see you throw
yourself away upon an outsider. Jiust remember that.
On the other hand, I'm not going to bother you to death.
Here I am by your side, and here I mean to stay. If that

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LOIS IS OBEDIENT 299

•—no, I wonH call him names! '' he said, stopping short
in his sentence — ^** but if anyone tries to make you un-
happy, well,' I shall have something to say. Come along^
let's finish our walk. We'll talk about something else if
you like."

She drew a little sigh of relief.

** You are a dear, Maurice," she repeated. " Come
along, we'll go down the lane and over the hills home.
I do feel safe, somehow, with you," she added, impul-
sively. " You are not going away just yet, are you? '*

" Not for a fortnight, at any rate," he answered.

**And you wont leave me alone?" she begged —
^ not even if I ask to be left alone? You see — I cant
make you understand — - but I don't even trust myself.**

He laughed reassuringly.

" I'll look after you, never fear," he answered. ** I'H
be better than a watchdog. Tell me, what's your handi-
cap at golf now? We must have a game to-morrow."

They walked down the lane, talking — in a somewhat
subdued manner, perhaps, but easily enough — upon
lighter subjects. And then at the comer, just as they had
passed the entrance to Blackbird's Nest, they came face
to face with Saton. Vandermere felt her suddenly creep
closer to him, as though for protection, and from his six
feet odd of height, he frowned angrily at the young man
with his hat in his hand preparing to accost them. Never
was dislike more instinctive and hearty. Vandermere, an
ordinarily intelligent but unimaginative Englishman, of
the normally healthy type, a sportsman, a good fellow,
and a man of breeding — and Saton, this strange prod-

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aoo THE MOVING FINGER

uct of strange circumstances, externally passable
enough, but with something about him which seemed,
even in that clear November sunshine, to suggest the
footlights.

"You are quite a stranger, Miss Champneyes,"
Saton said, taking her unresisting hand in his. *^ I hope
that you are going in to see the Comtesse. Only this
morning she told me that she was finding it appallingly
lonely.'*

"I — I wasn't calling anywhere this afternoon," Lois
said timidly. ** Captain Vandermere has come down to
stay with us for a few days, and I was showing him the
country. This is Mr. Saton -^ Captain Vandermere. I
don't know whether you remember him."

The two men exchanged the briefest of greetings.
Saton's was civil enough. Vandermere's was morose, al-
most discourteous.

^* Let me persuade you to change your mind," Saton
said, speaking slowly, and with his eyes fixed upon Lois.
**The Comtesse would be so disappointed if she knew
that you had passed this way and had not entered."

Vandermere was conscious that in some way the girl
by his side was changed. She drew a little away from
him.

** Very well," she said, ** I shall be pleased to go in
and see her. You do not mind, Maurice? "

" Not at all," he answered. " If I may be allowed, I
will come with you."

There was a moment's silence. Then Saton spoke —
quietly, regretfully.

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LOIS IS OBEDIENT 201

" I am so sorry/' he said, ** but the Comtesse de Ves-
tinges — my adopted mother,'* he explained, with a lit-
tle bow — ^^ receives no one. She is old, and her health is
not of the best. A visit from Miss Champneyes always
does her good."

Lois looked up at her companion.

" Perhaps," she said, ** you will have a cigarette in the
lane."

** I am sorry, to seem inhospitable," Saton said
smoothly. ** If Captain Vandermere will come up to the
house, my study is at his service, and I can give him some
cigarettes which I think he would find passable."

" Thank you," Vandermere answered, a little gruffly,
** I'll wait out here. Remember, Lois," he added, turn-
ing towards her, " that we are expected home to play
bridge directly after tea."

" I will not be long," she answered.

She moved off with Saton, turning round with a little
farewell nod to Vandermere as they passed through the
gate. He took a quick step towards her. Was it his
fancy, or was there indeed appeal in the quick glance
which she had thrown him? Then directly afterwards,
while he hesitated, he heard her laugh. Reluctantly he
gave up the idea of following them, and swinging him-
self onto a gate, sat watching the two figures climbing
the field toward the house.

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CHAPTER XXV

A LAST WAENING

THE laugh which checked Vandennere m his first
intention of following Lois and Saton up the
field, was scarcely a mirthful effort. Saton had
bent toward his companion, and his tone had been almost
tlireatening.

^* You must not look at anyone like that while I mn
with you,'* he said. ** You must not look as though you
were frightened of me. You must se«n amused. You
must laugfa.*^

She obeyed. It was a poor effort, but it sounded
natural enough in the distance.

*• Come,** Saton continued, ** you are not Tery kind
to me, Lois. You are not very kind to the man whom 3^011
are going to marry, whom you have said that you love.
It has been very lonely these last few days, Lois. You
have not come to me. I have watched for you often.'*

** I could not come," she answered. " Lady Mary haft
been with me all the time. I think that she suspects."

•* Surely you are clever enough," he answered, ** to
outwit a little simpleton like that. Has Rochester been
interfering? "

" If he knew that I even spoke to you," ehe answered,
** I think that he would send me away."

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A LAST WARNING aos

" It is not kind of them,'* he said, ** to be so bitter
against me."

She shrank from him.

" If they knew ! " she said, ** If they only knew that
I even thought of marrying you,, or — or — ^*

Saton shrugged his shoulders.

**Ah, well,** he said, "they know as much as it is
well for them to know ! After all, you see, no harm has
happened to your guardian. I saw him to-day, on his
way home from hunting. He looked strong and well
enough. Tell me, Lois,'' he continued, " has he had any
visitors from London the last few days? I don't mean
guests — I mean people to see him on business? "

" Not that I know of," she answered. " Why? "

Saton's face darkened.

" It is he, I am sure," he said, ** who is interfering in
my concerns. Never mind, Lois, we will not talk about
that, dear. Give me your hand. We are engaged, you
know. You should be glad to have these few minutes
with me."

Her fingers which he clasped were like ice. He was
puzzled at her attitude.

" A month ago," he said softly, " you did not find it
such a hardship to spend a little time alone with me."

" A month ago," she answered, ^^ I had not seen you
on your knees with a gun, seen your white face, heard
the report, and seen Mr. Rochester f alL I had not seen
you steal aw^ through the bracken. Oh, it was terrible !
You looked like a murderer! I shall never, never for-
get it.^

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^04 THE MOVING FINGER

He laughed softly.

^ These things are fancies," he said — ** dreams. You
Krill forget them, my dear Lois. You will forget them
Tery soon.**

They entered the house, and in the hall he drew her
into his arms. She wrenched herself free, and crouched
back in the comer, with her hands stretched out in front
of her face.

" Don't ! '» she cried. " Don't ! If you kiss me, I shaU
go mad. Can't you see that I don't want to come with
you, that I don't want to be with you? You shall let me
go ! You must let me go ! "

He stood frowning a few feet away. To tell the truth,
, he was honestly puzzled at her attitude. At last, with a
little shrug of the shoulders, he threw open the door of
the sitting-room.

** Rachael," he said, ** Lois has come to see you for a
few minutes."

Lois went timidly into the room. Rachael, with a
shawl around her shoulders, was sitting in front of a
huge fire. She turned her head and held out her long
withered hand, as usual covered with rings.

" Sit opposite me, child. Let me look at you."

Lois sat down, gazing with fascinated eyes at the
woman whose presence she found almost as terrifying as
the presence of Saton himself.

" My son — I call Bertrand my son," she said, " be-
cause I have adopted him, and because everything I have,
even my name if he will have it — will be his — my son,
then, tells me that he has not seen you for several days."

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A LAST WARNING d05

" It is very difficult," Lois said, trembling.

" Why? " Rachael asked.

"My guardian, Mr. Rochester, does not allow Ber-
trand to come to the house," Lois said, hesitatingly,
** and Lady Mary tries not to let me come out alone."

Rachael nodded her head slowly, her eyes glittered in
the firelight. Wrapped in her black shawl, she looked
like some quaint effigy — something scarcely human.

" Your guardian and his wife," she said, " are foolish,
ignorant people. They do not understand such men as
Bertrand. You will understand him, child. You will
know him better when he is your husband, knpw him
better, and be proud of him. Is it not so? "

** I — I suppose so," Lois said.

^^ I am glad that you came this afternoon," Rachael
continued. " Bertrand and I have been talking. We
think it well that you should be married very soon."

** I am not of age," Lois said, breathlessly.

** It does not matter," Rachael declared. " Your
guardian can keep back your money, but that is of no
consequence. It will come to you in time, and Bertrand
has plenty himself. I am afraid that they might try and
tempt you to be faithless to my son. You are very
young and impressionable, and though I do not doubt
but that you are fond of him, it is not easy to be faith-
ful when you are alone, and with such people as Mr.
Rochester and Lady Mary. I am going to London in a
few days. I think it would be well if you went with me.
Bertrand could get a special license, and you could be
married at once."

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ao6 THE MOVING FINGER

"No!" she Arieked. **Na! No!**

Rachael said nothing. H^ lips moved, but no sound
<!ame. Only her eyes flashed unutterable things.

Upon the somewhat hysterical silence came the sound
of Saton's voice •— cold, decisive.

** Lois," he said, " what my mother has advised would
make me very happy. Will you remember that I wish it?
Will you remember that? "

"Yes! "she faltered.

" I shall make you a good husband," he added, com*
ing a little nearer to her, sinking on one knee by her
side, and taking her cold, unresisting hands into his. ^^ I
shall make you a good husband, and I think that you will
be happy. We cannot go on like this. I only see you now
by stealth. It must come to an end."

"Yes! "she faltered.

" Next time we meet," he continued, " I will tell you
what plans we have made."

She turned her head slowly, and looked at him witii
frightened, wide-open eyes.

" Why? " she asked. " Why do you want me to marry
you? You do not care for me. You do not care for me
at all. Is it because I am rich? But you — you are rich
yourselves. I would offer you my money, but you can-
not want that.'*

He smiled enigmatically.

"No!" he said. "Money is a good thing, but we
have money ourselves. Don't you believe, Lois," he
added, bending towards her, " that I am fond of you? **

** Oh ! yes," she answered, " if you say so ! **

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A LAST WARNING 207

** Of course I say so ! " he declared. " I am very fond
of you indeed, or I should not want to marry you.
Come, I think that you had better say good-bye to my
mother now. Your friend outside will be tired of wait-
ing.''

She rose to her feet, and he led her from the room.
They walked down the field side by side, and Lois felt
her knees trembling. She was white as a sheet, and once
she was obliged to clutch his arm for support. As they
neared the gate, they saw that Vandermere was talking
to someone on horseback. Saton's face darkened as he
recognised the tall figure. His first impulse was to stop,
but with Lois by his side he saw at once that it was im-
possible. With the courage that waits upon the in-
evitable, he opened the gate and passed out into the
lane.

*^ Good afternoon, Miss Champneyesl " he said, hold-
ing out his hand. " It was very good of you to come
in and visit the Comtesse. She k always so glad indeed
to see you."

The girl's fingers lay for a moment Icy cold within
his. Then die turned with a little breath of relief to
Vandermere. They walked off together.

Rochester dgnalled with his whip to Saton to wait for
a moment. As soon as the other two were out of ear-
shot, he leaned down from his saddle.

" My young friend," he said, " it seems to me that you
are wilfully disregarding my warning."

" I was not aware," Saton answered, " that Miss
Champneyes was a prisoner in your house, nor do I see

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ao8 THE MOVING FINGER

how I am to be held responsible for her call upon the
Comtesse."

** We will not bandy words/' Rochester said. " I have
no wish to quarrel with you, but I want you always to
remember the things which I have said. Lois Champneyes
is very nearly of age, it is true, but she remains a child
by disposition and temperament. As her guardian, I
want you to understand that I forbid you to continue
your friendship or even your acquaintance with her ! "

The quiet contempt of Rochester's words stung Saton
into a moment of fury.

" What sort of a creature am I, then," he exclaimed,
** that you should think me unworthy even to speak to
your ward, or to the women of your household? You
treat me as though I were a criminal, or worse ! "

Rochester tapped his riding boot with the end of his
whip. Saton watched him with fascinated eyes. There
seemed something a little ominous in the action, in the
sight of that gently moving whip, held so firmly in the
long, sinewy fingers.

" What you are,'* Rochester said, leaning a little
down from his horse, " you know and I know. Let that
be enough. Only remember that there comes a time when
threats cease, and actions commence. And as sure as you
and I are met here together this evening, Saton, I tell
you that if you offend again in this matter, I shall
punish you. You understand? "

Rochester swung his horse round and cantered down
the lane. Saton stood looking after him with white,
angry face and clenched hands.

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CHAPTER XXVI

THE Duchess welcomed the little party from
Beauleys in person, and with more than or-
dinary warmth.

** I am glad to see you all, of course,*' she said, " but
I am really delighted to see you about again, Henry. Do
tell me, now. I have heard so many contradictory re-
ports. Did you shoot yourself, or was it one of your
guests who did it? I donH know how it is, but poor
Ronald always says that the men one asks to shoot,
nowadays, hit everything except the birds."

*' My dear Duchess,*' Rochester answered, " I certainly
did not shoot myself. I have every confidence in my
^ests, and so far as we have been able to ascertain,
there wasn't another soul in the neighborhood. Shall
we say that I was shot by the act of God? There really
doesn't seem to be any other explanation."

The Duchess was not altogether satisfied.

** To-night I am going to offer you a great privilege,"
she said. ^^ I am going to give you a chance of finding
out the answer to your riddle."

Rochester looked perplexed, and Lady Mary blandly
curious. Pauline alone seemed as though by instinct to
realize what lay beneath their hostess's words. Her face

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310 THE MOVING FINGER

seemed suddenly to grow tense. She shrank back — a
slight, involuntary movement, but significant enough
under the circumstances.

"An answer to my riddle," Rochester remarked,
smiling. "Really, I did not know that I had pro-
pounded one.'*

"Only a moment ago," the Duchess reminded him,
" you spoke of being shot by the act of God. That, of
course, ^as a form of speech. You meant tiiat you did
not know who did it. Perhaps we shall be able to solve
that little mystery for you.**

Rochester looked at his hostess as though for a mo-
ment he doubted her sanity. Tall and slim in his im-
maculate clothes, standing before the great wood fire
which burned in the open grate, he leaned a little for-
ward upon his stick, with knitted brows. Then his eyes
caught Pauline's, and something which he was about to
say seemed to die away upon his lips.

"Of course, you are unbelievers, all of you," the
Duchess said, calmly, **but some day — perhaps even
to-night — you may become converts. Did I tell you,
Mary," she continued, turning away from Rochester,
** that I met that extraordinary man Naudheim in Lon-
don? He told me so many interesting things, and since
then I have been reading. He introduced me to — to one
of his most brilliant pupils — a young man, he assured
me, whose insight was more highly developed, even, than
his own. Of course, you understand that in these mat-
ters, insight and perception take the place almost of
brains."

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THE DUCHESS'S DINNER PARTY an

"My dear Dudiesa,'* Roeb^er interrupted, "what
are you talking about? "

" The new science,^' tibe Duchesa answered^ with a note
of triumph in her tone. "You will learn all about it
some day, and you cannot begin too soon. The young
man whom Professor Naudheim spoke so highly of is
dining here to-night. Curiously enough, I found that
he was almost a neighbor of both of ours."

There was an instant's silence. Pauline, who was pre-
pared, was now perhaps the calmest of the trio. Roches-
ter's face was dark with anger.

** You refer, Duchess, I suppose," he said — •

The Duchess left him unceremoniously. She took a
step or two forward with outstretched hands. The but-
ler was announcing -—

"Mr. Saton!"

The dinner was as successful as the Duchess's country
dinners always were. She herself, a hostess of renown,
led the conversation at her end of the table. like all
women with a new craze, she conscientiously did her best
to keep it in the background, and completely failed.
Before the third course had been removed, she was dis-
cussing occultism with the bishop of the diocese.
Rodiester, from har other side, listened with a thin smile.
She turned upon him suddenly.

** Oh, I know that you're an unbeliever ! " she said.
•* You're one of those people who go through life doubt-
ing everything. You shan't have him for an ally.
Bishop," she said, " because your points of view are en-

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did THE MOVING FINGER

tirely. different. Henry here doubts everything^ from his
own existence to the vintage of my champagne. You, on
the other hand," she added, turning toward her other
companion, ^^are forced to disbelieve, because you feel
that any new power or gift that may be granted to us,
and which we discover for ourselves, is opposed, of
course, to your creed.'*

" It depends,'' the bishop remarked, " upon the nature
of that power."

^^Even in its elementary stages," the Duchess said»
** there is no 'doubt that it is a power which can do a
great deal for us towards solving the mysteries of exist-*
ence. Personally, I consider it absolutely and entirely
inimical to any form of religious belief."

" Why? " Rochester asked quietly.

^^ Because," the Duchess answered, ^^ all the faith that
has been lavished upon religion since the making of the
world, has been a misapplied force. If it had been ap^
plied toward developing this new part of ourselves,
there is no doubt that so many thousands of years could
never have passed without our entering the last and
greatest chamber in the treasure-house of knowledge."

The bishop, being a privileged guest, and a cousin
of his hostess, deliberately turned his back upon her and
escaped from the conversation. The Duchess looked past
him towards Saton, who was sitting a few places down
the table.

" There ! " she exclaimed. " I have been braver than
even you could have been."

Saton smiled.

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THE DUCHESS'S DINNER PARTY 213

" That sort of courage,'* he remarked, ** is the pre-
rogative of your sex."

" You have heard what I said,'* she continued. " Don't
you agree with me? '*

** Of course," he answered.

He hesitated for a moment, but the Duchess was look-
ing at him. She evidently expected him to continue the
subject.

" We are told," he said slowly, " that there is no such
thing as waste in the physical world — that matter
simply changes its form. I suppose that is true enough.
And yet a change of form can be for the better or for
the worse, according to our caprices. Strictly speaking,
it is a waste when matter is changed for the worse. It is
very much like this, I think, with regard to the sub-
ject which you were just then discussing. Faith, from
our point of view, is a very real and psychical force.
The faith which has been spent upon religion through
all these ages, seems to us very much like the tragedy
of an unharnessed Niagara."

The Duchess looked around her triumphantly. She
was chilled a little, however, by Rochester's curling lip.

** Dear hostess," he whispered in her ear, ** this sort of
conversation is scarcely respectful to the bishop, even
though he be a relative. You can let your young-
prot^g^ expound his marvelous views after dinner."

The Duchess shrugged her ample shoulders.

** I wonder how it is," she declared, a little peevishly,.
** that directly one sets foot in the country, one seems
to come face to face with the trafe Briton. What hypo-

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214 THE MOVING FINGER

crites we all are! We are broad enough to discuss any
subject under the sun, in town, but we seem to shrink
into something between the FhiUstine and the agricul-
tural pedagogue, as soon as we sniff the air of the
ploughed fields."

She rose a little pettishly, and motioned to Rochester
to take her place.

" Five minutes only," she said. " You will find us all
over the place. The cigarettes and cigars are in the hall.
You can finish your wine here, and come out."

" Is there anything particular," Rochester asked
grimly, " that we are permitted to talk about? "

" With this crowd," she whispered, " if I forbid poli-
tics and agriculture, I don't think you'll last the five
minutes."

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CHAPTER XXVII

THE ANSWEB TO A BIDDIiE

A FEW of the Duchess's guests left early —
those who had to driye a long distance, and
who had not yet discarded their carriage
horses for motor-cars. Afterwards the party seemed to
draw into a little circle, and it was then that the Duchess,
rising to her feet, went over and talked earnestly for a
few minutes with Saton.

** Some slight thing ! ** she begged. ** Anything to set
these people wondering! Look at that old stick Henry
Rochester, for instance. He believes nothing — doesn't
want to believe anything. Give him a shock, do ! **

^ Can't you understand. Duchess," Saton said, ** how
much harm we do to ourselves by any exhibition of the
sort you suggest? People are at once inclined to look
upon the whole thing as a clever trick, and go about
asking one another how it is done.'*

The Duchess w€is disappointed, and inclined to be
pettish. Saton realized it, and after a moment's hesita-
tion prepared to temporize.

" If it would amuse you," he said, " and I can find
anyone here to help me, I daresay we could manage some
thought transference. All London seems to be going to
see those two people at the Alhambra — or is it the Em-
pire? You can see the same thing here, if you like.'*

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ax6 THE MOVING FINGER

The Duchess beamed.

" That would be delightful,^ she said. ** Whom would
you like to help you? "

** Leave me alone for a minute or two," Saton said.
^^ I will look around and choose somebody."

The Duchess stepped back into the circle of her guests.

" Mr. Saton is going to entertain us in a very won-
derful manner," she announced.

Rochester, who had been on his way to the billiard
room, came back.

^^ Let us stay and see the tricks," he remarked to the
bishop, who had been his companion.

The Duchess frowned. Saton shot a sudden glance
at Rochester. A dull, angry color burned in his cheeks.

" Stay, by all means, Mr. Rochester," he said. " We
may possibly be able to interest you."

There was almost a challenge in his words. Rochester,
ignoring them save for his slightly uplifted eyebrows,
sat down by the side of Pauline.

** The fellow's cheek is consummate ! " he muttered.

" I need," Saton remarked quietly, ** what I suppose
Mr. Rochester would call a confederate. I can only see
one whom I think would be temperamently suitable.
Will you help me? " he asked, turning suddenly toward
Pauline.

" No ! " Rochester answered sternly. " Lady Marrabel
will have nothing to do with your performance."

Rochester bit his lip the moment he had spoken. He
felt that he had made a mistake. One or two of the
guests looked at him curiously. The Duchess was liter-

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THE ANSWER TO A RIDDLE aiy

ally open-mouthed. Saton was smiling in a peculiar
manner.

" In that case/' he remarked quietly, " if Mr. Roches-
ter has spoken with authority, I fear that I can do noth-
ing."

The Duchess was very nearly angry.

"Don't be such an idiot, Henry!" she said. "Of
course Pauline will help. What is it you want her to do,
Mr. Saton? "

" Nothing at all," he answered, " except to sit in a
comer of the room, as far from me as possible, and an-
swer the questions which I shall ask her, if she be able.
You will do that? " turning suddenly towards her.

" Of course she will ! " the Duchess declared. " Be
quiet, Henry. You are a stupid, prejudiced person, and
I won't have you interfere."

Pauline rose to her feet.

" I am afraid," she said, ** that I can scarcely be of
much use, but of course I don't mind trying."

Saton was standing a little away, with his elbow lean-
ing upon the mantelpiece.

" If two of you," h^ said, helping himself to a cig-
arette, and deliberately lighting it, "will take Lady
Marrabel over — say to that oak chair underneath the
banisters — blindfold her, and then leave her. Really
I ought to apologize for what I am going to do.
Everything is so very obvious. Still, if it amuses you ! "

Pauline sat by herself. The others were all gathered
together in the far comer of the great hall. Saton
turned to the bishop.

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2X8 THE MOVING FINGER

" This is only a repetition of the sort of thing which
you have doubtless seen," he said, " Have you anything
in your podket whidi you are quite sure that Lady Mar-
rabel knows nothing of? "

Silently the bishop produced a small and worn Greek
Testament. Saton opened it at random. Then he turned
suddenly toward the figure of the woman sitting alone
in the distance. Some change had taken place in his man-
ner and in his bearing. Those who watched him closely
were at once aware of it. His te^ seemed to have come
together, the lines of his face to have become tense. He
leaned a little forward toward Pauline.

^^ I have something in my hands,^ he said. ^ I wonder
if you can tell me what it is."

There was no answer. They listened and watched.
Pauline never spoke. Alrea^ a smile was parting
Rochester's lips.

^^ I think, Lady Marrabel»" Saton said slowly, ^ that
you can tell me, if you wilL I think that you will tell
me. I think that you must ! **

Something that sounded almost like a half-stifled sob
came to them from across the hall — and then Pauline's
voice.

" It is a small book,'* she said — ^ a Testament.**

** Go on,'* Saton said.

"A Greek Testament!" Pauline continued. "It is
open at — at the sixth chapter of St. Mark."

Saton passed it round. The Duchess beamed with de-
light upon everybody. Saton seemed only modestly sur-
prised at the interest which everyone displayed.

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THE ANSWER TO A RIDDLE 219

*^ We are only doing something now," he said, " which
has already been done, and proved easy. The only
trouble is, of course, that Lady Marrabel being a
stranger to me, the effort is a little greater. If you will
be content with one more test of this sort, I will try, if
you like, something different — something, at any rate,
which has not been done in a music-hall.'*

A gold purse was passed to him, with a small mono-
gram inscribed. Again Pauline slowly, and even as
though against her wijl, described correctly the purse
and its contents.

Saton brushed away the little murmurs of surprise
and delight.

" Come," he said, " this is all nothing. It really — as
you will all of you know in a few years time — can be
done by any one of you who chooses seriously to de-
velop the neglected part of his or her personality. I
should like to try something else which would be more
interesting to you."

The Duchess turned towards him with clasped hands.

^ Can't you," she said, " make her say how Mr.
Rochester met with his accident? "

There was a little thrill amongst everyone. Saton
stood as though absorbed in thought.

*« Why not? " he said softly to himself.

Rochester laughed hardly.

" Come," he said, " we are getting practical at last.
Let one thing be understood, though. If our young
friend here is really able to solve this little mystery, he
win not object to my making use of his discovery.*'

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aao THE MOVING FINGER

" By no means/' Saton answered. " But I warn you
that if the person is one unknown to Lady Marrabel or
myself, I cannot tell you who it was. All that I can do
is perhaps to show you something of how the thing was
done.*'

^^ It will be most interesting ! " Rochester declared.

There was a subdued murmur of thrilled voices. One
or two looked at each other uneasily. Even the Duchess
began to feel a little uncomfortable. Saton was suddenly
facing Pauline. He was standing a little nearer, with the
fingers of his right hand resting upon the round oak
table which stood in the centre of the hall. His figure
had become absolutely rigid, and the color had left his
cheeks. His voice seemed to them to come from some
other person.

"Listen," he said, bending even a little further to-
ward the woman, who was leaning forward now from her
chair, as though eager or compelled to hear what was
being said to her. ** A month — six weeks — some time
ago^ you were with Henry Rochester, a few minutes after
his accident. He was shot — or he shot himself. He was
shot by design or by misadventure. You were the first
to find him. You came round the comer of the wood,
and you saw him there, lying upon the grass. You heard
a shot just before — two shots. You came round the
comer of the wood, and you saw nothing except the body
of Henry Rochester lying upon the ground."

" Nothing ! " she murmured. " Nothing ! "

There was an intense silence. The little group of peo-
ple were all leaning forward with eyes riveted upon

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THE ANSWER TO A RIDDLE aaz

Pauline Marrabel. Even Rochester's expression had be-
come a little tense.

"Think again," Saton said. "There was only a
comer of the wood between you and that field when the
shot was fired. You are walking there now, now, as the
shots are fired. Bend forward. You can see through
those trees if you try. I think that you do see through
them."

Again he paused. Again there were a few seconds'
silence — silence save for the quick breathing of the
Duchess, who was crumpling her lace handkerchief into
a little ball in her hands.

Then Pauline's voice came to them.

" There is a gun laid against a gate which leads into
the field," she said — *^ a gun, and by its side a bag of
cartridges. Someone has been hiding behind the wall.
He has the gun in his hands. He looks along the path.
There is no one coming."

A woman from the little group of people commenced
to sob softly. Pauline's voice ceased. Someone put a
hand over the mouth of the frightened woman.

" Go on," Saton said.

" The man has the gun in his hand. He goes down on
his knees," Pauline continued. " The gun is pointed to-
wards Mr. Rochester. There is a puff of smoke, a report,
Mr. Rochester has fallen down. He is up again. Then
befalls! — yes, he falls!"

Saton passed his hand across his forehead.

" Go on," he said.

** The man is taking the cartridge from the gun,"

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daa THE MOVING FINGER

Pauline said. ^He dips in another from the bag. He
has leaned the gun against the gate. He is stealing
away."

Saton leaned towards her till he seemed even about to
spring.

" You could not see his face? '* he said.

There was no answer. Two of the women behind were
sobbing now. A third was lying back, half unconscious.
Rochester had risen to his feet. The faces of all of them
seemed suddenly to reflect a new and nameless terror.

Saton moved slowly towards Pauline. He moved un-
steadily. The perspiration now was standing in thick
beads upon his forehead. He suddenly realized his
risk.

"You could not see his face?^' he repeated. "Yoa
do not know who it was that fired that gun? "

" I could not see his face," she re{>eated. " But I —
I can see it now."

"You do not recognise it?** he said, and his voice
seemed to come tearing from his throat, diarged with
some new and compelling quality. " You cannot recog-
nise it? You do not know whether you have ever seen
it before? "

Pauline rose suddenly to her feet. Her bosom was
heaving, her face was like a white mask. Her hands were
suddenly thrown high above her bead.

" It is horrible ! " she shrieked. " It was you who fired
the gun! — You!"

She swayed for a moment, and fell over on her side
like a decul woman — her arms ilirown out, her limbs

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She swayed for a moment, and fell over on her side.

{Page 223

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THE ANSWER TO A RIDDLE 223

inert, as though indeed it were death which had stricken
her.

Rochester, with a shout of anger, sprang towards her,
sending Saton reeling against the table. He fell on his
knees by her side.

^^ Bring water, some of you idiots i*^ he cried out.
^^ Ring the belli And don't kt that cursed charlatan es-
cape! *•

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CHAPTER XXVra

SPOKEN FKOM THS HEAKT

FlULINE took the card from the hand of her
servant, and glanced at it at first with the idlest
of curiosity — afterwards with a fixed and stead-
fast attention, as though she saw in those copperplate
letters, elegantly traced upon a card of superfine quality,
something symbolical, something of far greater sig-
nificance than the unexpected name which confronted her.

" I told you, Martin,'* she said, " that I was at home
to nobody except those upon the special list."

" I know it, your ladyship,'* the man answered, ** but
this gentleman has called every day for a week, and I
have refused even to bring his name in. To-day he was
so very persistent that I thought perhaps it would be
better to bring his card."

Pauline was lying upon a couch. She had been un-
well for the last two or three weeks. Nothing serious —
nerves, she called it. A doctor would probably have pre-
scribed for her with a smile. Pauline knew better than
to send for one. She knew very well what was the matter.
She was afraid ! Fear had come upon her like a disease.
The memory of that one night racked her still — the
memory of that, and other things.

Meanwhile, the servant stood before her in an attitude
of respectful attention.

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SPOKEN FROM THE HEART aas

" I will see Mr. Saton," she decided at last. ** You can
show him in here, and remember that until he has gone,
no one else is to be allowed to enter. Come yourself
only if I ring the bell, or when you serve tea.''

The man bowed, and went back to where Saton was
waiting in the haU.

" Her ladyship is at home, sir,'* he announced. " Will
you come this way? "

A certain drawn expression seemed suddenly to vanish
from the young man's face. He followed the servant
almost blithely. In a few seconds he was alone with her
in the firelit drawing-room. The door was closed behind
him.

Pauline was sitting up on the couch. For a moment
they neither of them spoke. She, too, had been suffering,
then, he thought, recognising the signs of ill-health in
her colorless cheeks and languid pose.

He came slowly across the room and held out his hand.
She hesitated, and shook her head.

**No!" she said. "I do not think that I wish to
shake hands with you, Mr. Saton. I do not understand
why you have come here. I thought it best to see you,
and hear what you have to say, once and for all."

" Once and for all? " he repeated.

*^ Certainly," she answered. " It does not interest me
to fence with words. Between us I think that it is not
necessary. What do you want with me? "

** You know," he answered calmly.

She paused for a moment or two. She told herself that
this was the most transcendental of follies. Yet it seemed

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aa6 THE MOVING FINGER

as though there were something electrical in the atmos-
phere, as though something had come into the room im-
accountable, stimulating, terrifying. All the languor of
the last few days was gone.

^ Am I to understand, then? ^' she said at last, speak-
ing in a low tone, and with her face ayerted from him,
^* that you have come to offer me some explanation of
the events of that night? '*

** No ! •* he answered.

The seconds tidied on. She found his taciturnity mad-
dening.

^' Your Tisit had some purpose? '' she asked.

" I came to see you," he answered.

^ I am not well,'' she said, hurriedly. ^ I am not fit
to see people or to talk at all. I thought that you must
have some special purpose in coming, or I should not
have received you."

^ You wish to talk tl^n, about that night? " he asked.

"No!" she answered — ^and yet, yes!"

She sat upright. She looked him in the eyes.

" I have not dared to ask even myself this," she said,
** but since you are here, since you have forced it upon
me, I shall ask you and you will tell me. That night I
had — what shall I call it? — a visicm. I saw you shoot
Henry Rochester. Now you are here you shall tell me if
what I saw was the truth? "

" It was," he answered.

She drew back, shuddering.

" But why ? " she asked. " He has never done you any
harm."

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SPOKEN PROM THE HEART aay

** On the contrary," Saton answered, " he is my enemy.
With all my heart and soul I wish him dead ! "

** It is terrible ! " she murmured.

** It is the truth,'' he answered. " The truth sometimes
is terrible. That is why people so often evade it. Listen.
I was only a boy, a sentimental boy, when I first knew
Rochester. Perhaps he has posed to you as my benefac-
tor. Certainly he lent me money. I tell you now, though,
that upon every penny of that money was a curse.
Whatever I did went wrong. However hard I fought, I
was worsted. If I gambled, I lost. If I played for safety,
something — even though it might be as unexpected as
an earthquake — came to wreck my plans. It was like
playing cards with the Devil himself. One by one I lost
the tricks. When I was penniless, I had nothing left to
think of but the only piece of advice your friend Henry
Rochester gave me when he sent me out into the world.
The sting of his voice was like a lash. Creatures of the
gutter he called those who had failed, and who dared
to live on. I tdl you that until the time came when I
looked down into the Thames, and hesitated whether or
no I should take his cynical advice and make an end of
myself, every action, every endeavor, and every effort
I had made, had been honest. It was his words, and his
words entirely, which drove me into the other paths."

** You admit, then — ^ she began.

" I admit nothing," he answered. " Yet I will tell you
this. There are things in my life which I loathe, and
they are there because of Rochester's words. Yet bad
though I am," he continued, bitterly ,^ " that man's con-

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MS THE MOVING FINGER

tempt is like a whip to me whenever I see him. What, in
God's name, is he? Because he has ancestors behind him,
good blood in his veins, the tricks of a man of breeding,
the carriage and voice of a gentleman, why, in Heaven's
name for these things should he look upon me as some-
thing crawling upon the face of the earth — something
to be spumed aside whenever it should cross his path? I
have lived and spoken falsehoods. The .greatest men in
the world have lived and spoken falsehoods. But I am
not a charlatan. I have mastered the rudiments of a
great and mighty new science. I am not a trickster. I
have a claim to live, as he has. There is a place in the
world for me, too, as well as for him. You know what
he has told me? You know with what he has threatened
me? He has told me that if he even sees you and me
together, that if I even dare to find my way into your
presence, that he will horsewhip me. This because he has
muscles and I have none. Yet you ask me why I desire
to kill him! I have had only one desire in my life
stronger than that, one thing in my life more intense
than my hatred of this man.*'

" You are both in the wrong,'* she said. ** Henry
Rochester is a straight-living. God-fearing man, a little
narrow in his views, and a little violent in his prejudices*
You are a person such as he would not understand, such
as he never could understand. You and he could never
possibly come into sympathy. He is wrong when he ut-
ters such threats. Yet you must remember that there is
Lois. He has the right there to say what he wilL"

" There is Lois, yes ! " Saton repeated.

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SPOKEN FROM THE HEART 229

•* You wish to marry her, don't you? ** she asked.

The question seemed to madden him. Suddenly he threw
aside the ahnost unnatural restraint with which he had
spoken and acted since his entrance into the room. He
rose to his feet. He stood before her couch with clenched
hands, with features working spasmodically as the words
poured from his lips.

** Listen," he said. ** I have no money. I have lived
partly upon the woman who adopted me, and partly by
nefarious means. Science is great, it is fascinating, it is
the joy of my life, but one must live. I have tasted
luxury. I cannot live as a workingman. The woman
who adopted me is all the time at my elbow, telling me
that I must marry Lois because of her money. The child
is willing. I have been willing.'^

"To marry her for her money — for her money
only!'* Pauline exclaimed, with scorn trembling in her
tone.

** Absolutely for her money only ! ** Saton answered.
" Now you know how poor a thing I am. Yet I tell you
that all men have a bad spot in them. I tell you that
I am dependent upon that woman for every penny I
spend, and for the clothes I wear. When I tell her that
I will not marry Lois Champneyes, she will very likely
throw me into the street. What is there left for me to
do? I have tried everything, and failed. I have no
strength, I have a cursed taste for the easy ways of life.
Yet this has come to me. I will not marry Lois Champ-
neyes. I will break with this woman, notwithstanding all
I owe to her, and I will go away and work once more.

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230 THE MOVING FINGES

wherever I can earn enough to keep me. And I wiH tell
you why. I haven't a good quality that I know of. I
am as selfish as a man can be. I am a murderer at heart,
an actor most of the time, but in one thing I am honest. I
love you, Pauline Marrabd! I can't help it. It is the
curse of my Kfe, if you will, but it is the joy of it.
Rochester knows it, and he hates me« I know that
Rochester loves you, and I hate him» Listen. There is a
man who believes in me — a great mcui. I'll go to him.
I'll work, I'll study, I'll write. I'D Bve the thoughts I
want to live. I'll shape my life along the firm straight
lines. I'll make a better thing of myself, if you'll wait.
Mind, I don't ask you to touch me now. If you offered
me your hands, I wouldn't take them. I'm not fit. But
there is just this one thing in me. I know myself and I
know you. Give me the chance to dimb! "

Time seemed to stand rtill while Ahe looked at him.
Yes, he had been honest! She saw him stripped of all
the glamour of his unusual learning. She saw him as he
was — small, fake, a poor creature, who having failed
on the mountains, had been content to crawl through tb«
marshes^ He seemed in those few moments to be stripped
bare to her. He wi» not earen a gentleman. He wore his
manners as he wore hia dothea. He bdonged to her
world no more than the serraoit who had announced hki.
She clenched her fingers. It waa ignoble that her heart
diould be beating, that, the breatk should come aobbing
through her parted lips. He was a creature to be de-
spised!

Sloe raised her head and told him so, fighting all the

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SPOKEN FROM THE HEART 231

while with something greater and stronger which seemed
to be tearing at her heart strings.

** If that is what you came here to say,'' she said^
** ple£ise go/*

He rose at once. She saw the anxious light with which
his eyes had been filled, fade away. He turned almost
humbly toward the door.

" You are qiiite right," he said. " I should not have
come. I do not often have impulses. It is a mistake ^o
listen to them. Yet I came because it was the one hanert.
desire which I have had since I looked down into the
water and turned away.'*

He walked toward the door. She stood with her finger
pressing the bell. He seemed somehow to have lost what
httle presence he had ever possessed. His head Wft»
bowed ; he walked as one feeling for his way in the dark.
Never once did he look roimd. As he stood before the
door, her lips were suddenly parted. A great wave of
pity rose up from amongst those other things in her
heart. She would have called out to him, but her butler
was aheady there. The door had been opened.

She clenched her teeth, and resumed her place upon the
sofa. She heard the front door closed, and she found
herself watching him through the blind. She saw him
cross the road very much as he had crossed the room —
unseeing, stricken. She watched him until he crossed the
comer of the square. Her eyes were misty with tears !

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CHAPTER XXIX

THE COUBAOE OF DESPERATION

CAPTAIN VANDERMERE had a friend from
the country, and was giving him supper at the
Savoy. He was also pointing out the different
people who were worthy of note,

" That,** he said, pointing to an adjoining table, " is
really one of the most interesting men in London.'*

^ He looks like an actor,** his friend remarked.

" So he may be,** Vandermere answered grimly, " but
his is not the Thespian stage. He is a lecturer and writer
on occultism, and in his way, I suppose, he is amazingly
clever.** -h

<<Do you mean Bertrand Saton?** his friend asked,
with interest.

Vandermere nodded.

**You have heard the fellow's name, of course,** he
said. ^^ For the last month or so one seems to meet him
everywhere, and in all sorts of society. The illustrated
papers, and even the magazines, have been full of the
fellow*s photograph. Women especially seem to regard
him as something supernatural. Look at the way they
are hanging upon his words now. That is the old Duch-
ess of Ampthill on his left, and the others are all decent
enough people of a sort.**

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THE COURAGE OF DESPERATION 233

" I gather from your tone,** his friend remarked,
** that the young man is not a favorite of yours."

" He is not,** Vandermere answered. " I don't under-
stand the breed, and that*s a fact. Apart from that, he
has had the confounded impertinence to make love to
— to a very charming young lady of my acquaintance.**

** He isn*t particularly good-looking,** the friend re-
marked — ^** striking I suppose people would say.**

"He has a sort of unwholesome way of attracting
women,** Vandermere remarked. **Look how they all
manoeuvre to walk out with him.**

Saton was exercising his rights as lion of the jmrty,
and leaving early. The Duchess whispered something in
his ear, at which he only laughed. Half-a-dozen invita-
tions were showered upon him, which he accepted con-
ditionally.

" I never accept invitations,** he said, " except with a
proviso. As a matter of fact, I never can tell exactly
when I shall want to work, and when the feeling for
work comes, everything else must go. It is not always
that one is in the right mood.**

** How interesting ! '* one of the women sighed.

"Must be like writing poetry, only far more ex-
citing,** another murmured.

" Tell me,** a girl asked him, as he stooped over her
fingers to say good night, " is it really true, Mr. Saton,
that if you liked you could make me do things even
against my will — that you could put ideas into my
head which I should be forced to carry out? **

" Certainly.**

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934^ THE MOVING FINGER

'^And yoa never make: use of your power?"

" Very aeUom^" he answereiL '* That is the chicanery^
of seience^ It is because people: when they have discov-
€sed a little are so anxious to ^iploit their knowlec^^
that they iKerer go any further. It is very easy indeed
to dominate the will of certain indiyiduals, but what we
really want to imderstand before we use our power, is
the law that governs it. Grood night, once more ! ^*

^^ A wonderful maa! '' thqr sighed one to another as
lie passed out

*^ I am one of the f ew,.'^ the Duchess remarked com*
placently,. ^^ who has seem a real manif ertattion of his
powers^ It is true,;'' ^e added, with a lifctle shudder,
*^ there was a mistake toMrajBd. the emt The experiment
wasn't wholly sncccsttful,, but it was wondfudTul, all the
same — wonderful ! *'

Swton lieft the restaurant, aad enteied the small dectrie
broug^tom which was waiting for him. He IBt a. cigarette
and leaned back amongst the cuduoos, musing^ over the
events of the evening with a complacent smile* The last
few weeks seemed to have wrought some soibUe change
in the man. His face was at once stronger and weaker,
more determined, and yet in a sense less trustworthy. His>
manner had gained in assertion, his bearing in confidence.
There was an air of resolve about him, as thou^ he
knew exactly where he was going — how far, and in
what direction. And with it all he had aged. There were
lines under his eyes, and his face was worn — at times
almost haggard.

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THE COUIIAGE OP DE5PESATION 335

He kt fairaself into ijbe tittle iiome in Beikeky Square
with his latchkey, 1^ turned at imee into iUcbael's room.
She was sitting over tbe &*e in a brilliant red dr^sing-
gown, her head elabomtely coifFured, her fingers and
neck brilliant with jewels. Yet when she turned her liead
one saw a change. Age had laid its grip upon her at last.
Her voice had lost its decision. Her liands trembled in
her lap.

" You are late, Bertrand," she said — ^^ very late.*'

" Not BO very,** he aiKwered. ** I have been supping
at the Savoy with the Duchess of Ampthill and son^
friends.**

She looked at him seaichingly, looked at him from
head to foot, noted the trim exactness of his evening
attire, and his enamel links axid waktcoat buttons, the
air of confidence with which lie crossed the room to mix
himself a whiskey and soda. It wius she who had been
like that a few months ago, and he the timid one. They,
seemed to have changed places.

** Bertrand,** she jsaid, " you frighten me. You go so
far, nowadays.**

" Why not? '* he answered.

" Huntley has been here to-nig^t,** she went on. ** He
tells me that you have opened even another place, and
that all iiie old ones axe going. He tdls me that the of-
fices are hard at work, too.**

^ Business is good,'* remarked Saton, drily.

" I thought that we were going quietly for a time,**"
she said. ^ It was you who were so terrified at the risk.
Do you imagine that the danger is over-f* **

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236 THE MOVING FINGER

*^ My dear Radiael,'' he answered, coming over to her,
^ I have come to the conclusion that I was over-timid.
There is no success in life to be won without daring.
Money we must have, and these places are like a gold
mine to us. If things go wrong, we must take our
chance. I am content. In the meantime, for all our sakes,
it suits me to be in evidence everywhere. The papers
publish my portrait, the Society journals record my
name, people point me out at the theatres and at the
restaurants. This is not vanity — this is business. I am
giving a lecture the week after next, and every seat is
already taken. I am going to say some daring things.
Afterwards, I am going to Naudheim for a month.
When I come back, I shall give another lecture. After
that, perhaps these places will not be necessary any
more. But who can tell? Money we must have, money
all the time. Science is great, but men and women must
live."

She looked at him with a grim smile.

** You amuse me,*' she said. ** Are you really the half-
starved boy who flung himself at my horses' heads in
the Bois?"

" I am what the Fates have made of that boy."

She shook her head.

" You are going too fast," she said. " You terrify
me. What about Lois? "

** Lois is of age in six weeks," he replied. " On
the day she is of age, I shall go to Rochester and de-
mand her hand. He will refuse, of course. I shall marry
her at once."

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THE COURAGE OF DESPERATION a37

** Why not now? *' Rachael asked. ** Why wait a day?
The money will come later.**

"I will tell you why/' Saton answered. ^^ Because I
have ambitions, and because it would do them harm if
people believed that I had exercised any sort of influ-
ence to make that girl marry me against her guardian's
wishes. I do use my influence as it is, although/' he
added, frowning, **I find it harder every day. She
walked with me in the Park this morning; she came to
tea with me the day before."

** What do you mean when you say that you find it
harder? " Rachael asked.

** I mean that I have lost some of my hold over her,"
he answered. " It is the sort of thing which is likely to
happen at any time. She has very weak receptive cur-
rents. It is like trying to drive water with a sieve."

** You must not fail," she muttered. " I am nervous
these days. I would rather you were married to Lois,
and her money was in the bank, and that these places were
closed. I start when the bell rings. Huntley himself said
that you were rash."

** Huntley is a fool," Saton answered. ** Let me help
you upstairs, Rachael."

He passed his arm around her affectionately, and
kissed her when they parted for the night. Then he came
down to his little room, and sat for a time at his desk,
piled with books and works of reference. He brooded
gloomily for several moments over what Rachael had
been saying. A knock at the door made him start. It was
only a servant, come to see to the fire, but his hand had

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0S6 THE MOVING FINGER

darted out toward a certain drawer of bis desk. When
the servant had retired, he opened it for a minute and
looked in. A small shining revcdver lay there, and a box
of cartridges.

"Your idea, my friend Rochester!" he mutta^ed to
lumself.

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CHAPTER XXX

A SXI&FBISINa BBOUEST

TIE Duchess of Ampthill was giving a great
dinneir^arty at her house in Grosvenor Square.
S3ie had found several new prodigies, and one
of ihem was performing in a most satisfactory manner.
He sat at her left hand, and though, unlike Saton, he had
al fia:st heen shy, the continual encouragement of his
hostess had eventually produced the desired result. His
name was Chalmers, and he was the nephew of a bishop.
Ha had taken a double first at Oxford, and now an-
nounced hia intention of embracing literature as a pro-
fession. He wore glasses, and he was still very young.
^^ There is no doubt at all,'' he said, in answer to a re-
mark from the Duchess, ^^ that London has reached just
that stage, in. her development as a city of human beings,
whick was so fatal to some of her predecessors in pre-
eminence,, some of those ancient cities of which there ex-
ists to-day only the name. The blood in her arteries is no
longer robust. Already the signs of decay are plentiful."
** I wonder," Rochester mquired, " what you consider
your evidences are for such a statement. To a poor out-
sider like myself, for instance, London seems to have all
the outward signs of an amazingly prosperous — one
might almost say a splendidly progressive city."

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240 THE MOVING FINGER

Chalmers smiled. It was a smile he had cultivated
when contradicted at the Union, and he knew its weight.

** From a similar point of view,'* he said, ** as yours,
Mr. Rochester, Rome and Athens,. Ninev^, and those
more ancient cities, presented the s€une appearance of
prosperity. Yet if you ask for signs, there are surely
many to be seen. I am anxious,'' he continued, gazing
around him with an air of bland enjoyment, " to avoid
anything in the nature of an epigram. There is nothing
so unconvincing, so stultifying to one's statements, as
to express them epigrammatically. People at once give
you credit for an attempt at intellectual gymnastics
which takes no regard to the truth. I will not, therefore,
weary you with a diatribe upon the condition of that
heterogeneous mass which is known to-day as Society.
I will simply point out to you one of the portents which
has inevitably heralded disaster. I mean the restless
searching everywhere for new things and new emotions.
Our friend opposite," he said, bowing to Saton, *' will
forgive me if I instance the almost passionate interest in
this new science which he is making brave efforts to give
to the world. A lecture to-day from Mr. Bertrand Saton
would fill any hall in London. And why? Simply be-
cause the people know that he will speak to them of new
things. Look at this man Father Cresswell. There is no
building in this great city which would hold the crowds
who flock to his meetings. And why? Simply because he
has adopted a new tone — because in place of the old
methods, he stands in his pulpit with a lash, and wields
it like a Russian executioner."

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A SURPRISING REQUEST 341

Lady Mary interrupted him suddenly from her place
a little way down the table.

" Oh, I don't agree with you ! '* she said. " Indeed, I
think you are wrong. The reason why people go to hear
Father Cresswell is not because he has anything new to
say, or any new way of saying iL The real reason is be-
cause he has the gift of showing them the truth. You
can be told things very often, and receive a great many
warnings, but you take no notice. There is something
wrong about the method of delivering them. It is not the
lash which Father Cresswell uses, but it is his extraor-
dinary gift of impressing one with the truth of what he
says, that has had such an effect upon everyone."

Rochester looked across at his wife curiously. It was
almost the first time that he had ever heard her speak
upon a serious subject. Now he came to think of it, he
remembered that she had been spending much of her time
lately listening to this wonderful enthusiast. Was he
really great enough to have influenced so light a crea-
ture, he wondered? Certainly there was something
changed in her. He had noticed it during the last few
days — an odd sort of nervousness, a greater kindness of
speech, an unaccustomed gravity. Her remark set him
thinking.

Chalmers leaned forward and bowed to Lady Mary.
Again the shadow of a tolerant smile rested upon his lips.

" Very well. Lady Mary," he said, " I will accept the

truth of what you say. Yet a few decades ago, who

cared about religion, or hearing the truth? It is simply

* because the men and women of Society have exhausted

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043 THE MOVING FINGER

every means of self-gratification, that in a sort of un-
wholesome reaction they turn towards the things as far
as possible removed from those with which they are sur-
feited. But I will leave Father Cresswell alone. I will ask
you whether it is not the bizarre, the grotesque in art,
which to-day wins most favor. I will turn to the making
of books — I avoid the term literature — and I will ask
you whether it is not the extravagant, the impossible, the
deformed, in style and matter, which is most eageriy read.
The simplest things in life should convince one. The
novelist's hero is no longer the fine, handsome young fel-
low of twenty years ago. He is something between forty
and fifty, if not deformed, at least decrepit witii dissipa-
tions, and with the gift of fascination, whatever that may
mean, in place of the simpler attributes of a few decades
ago. And the heroine ! — There is no more book-muslin
and innocence. She has, as a rule, green eyes ; she is mid-
dle-aged, and if she has not been married before, she has
had her affairs. Everything obvious in life, from poli-
tics to mutton-chops, is absolutely barred by anyone with
any pretensions to intellect to-day.'*

**C)ne wonders,'' Rochester murmured, "how in the
course of your long life, Mr. Chalmers, you have been
able to see so far and truthfully into the heart of
things ! "

Chalmers bowed.

" Mr. Rochester," he said, " it is the newcomw in life,
as in many other things, who sees most of the game."

The conversation drifted away. Rochester was re-
minded of it only when driving home that night with his

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A SURPRISING REQUEST 24^

wife. Again, sm they took their places in the electric
brougham^ he was conscious of something changed^ not
only in tiie woman herself^ but in her doneanor towards
him.

<^Do jou mind," he asked, soon after they started,
** just dropping me at the club? It is scarcely out of
your way, and I feel tiiak I need a whiskey and soda, and
a game of billiards, to take the taste of that young man's
talk out of my mouth. What a sickly brood of chickens
the Duchess does encourage, to be sure ! "

" I wonder if you'd mind not going to the club to-
night, Henry? " Lady Mary asked quietly.

He turned toward her in surprise.

•* Why, certainly not,'* he answered. ^ Have we to go
on anywhere? '*

She shook her head.

•* No ! '^ she said. " Only I fed I'd Uke to talk to you
for a little time, if you don't mind. It's nothing very
much,^ she continued, nervously twisting her handker*
diief between her fingers..

^ I'll come home with pleasure,'^ Rochester intevrupted.
^ Don't look so scared,** he added, patting the back of
her hand gently. ** You know very well, if there is any
little trouble, I shall be delighted to hdp you out«"^

She did not remove her hand, but she looked out of the
window. What she wanted to say seaned harder than
ever. And after all, was it worth while? It would mean
giving up a very agreeable side to life. It would mean
— Her Noughts suddenly changed their course. Once
more she was sitting upon that very uncomfortable

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244 THE MOVING FINGER

bench in the great city hall. Once more she felt that curi-
ous new sensation, some answering vibration in her heart
to the wonderful, passionate words which were bringing
tears to the eyes not only of the women, but of the men,
by whom she was surrounded. No, it was not an art, this
— a trick ! No acting was great enough to have touched
the hearts of all this time and sin-hardened multitude. It
was the truth — simply the truth.

**It isn't exactly a little thing, Henry. Pll tell you
about it when we get home.'*

No, it was no little thing, Rochester thought to him-
self, as he stood upon the hearthrug of her boudoir, and
listened to the woman who sat on the end of the sofa a
few feet away as she talked to him. Sometimes her eyes
were raised to his — eyes whose color seemed more beau-
tiful because of the tears in them. Sometimes her head
was almost buried in her hands. But she talked all the
time — an odd, disconnected sort of monologue, half
confession, half appeal. There was little in it which
seemed of any great moment, and yet to Rochester it was
as though he were face to face with a tragedy* TIub
woman was asking him much !

^^ I know so well," she said, *^ what a useless, frivolous^^
miserable sort of life mine has been, and I know so ^ell
that I haven't made the least attempt, Henry, to be a
good wife to you. That wasn't altogether my fault, was
it?" she asked pleadingly. "Do tell me that."

" It was not your fault at all," he answered gravely*
" It was part of our arrangement."

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A SURPRISING REQUEST 345

** I am afraid/* she said, " that it was a very unholy,
a very wicked arrangement, only you see I was badly
brought up, and it seemed to me so natural, such an ex-
cellent way of providing a good time for myself, to
marry you, and to owe you nothing except one thing.
Henry, you will believe this, I know. I have flirted very
badly, and I have had many of those little love-affairs
which every woman I know indulges in — silly little af-
fairs just to pass away the time, and to make one believe
that one is living. But I have never really cared for any-
body, and these little follies, although I suppose they are
such a waste of emotion and truthfulness and real feel-
ing, haven't amounted to very much, Henry. You know
what I mean. It is so difficult to say. But you believe
that?''

" I believe it from my soul," he answered.

" You see," she went on, ** it seemed to me all right, be-
cause there was no one to point out how foolish and silly
it was to play one's way through life as though it were a
nursery, and we children, and to forget that we were
grown-up, and that we were getting older with the years.
You have been quite content without me, Henry?" she
asked, looking up at him wistfully.

" Yes, I have been content ! " he admitted, looking
away from her, looking out of the room. ** I have been
content, after a fashion."

** Ours was such a marriage of convenience," she went
on, " and you were so very plain-spoken about it, Henry.
I feel somehow as though I were breaking a compact
when I turn round and ask you whether it is not possible

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246 THE MOVING FINGER

that we might be, perhape, some day, a little more to (me
another. You know why I am almost afraid to say this.
It has not been with you as it has been witii me. I have
always felt that she has been there — Pauline.'*

She was tearing little bits from the lace of her hand-
kerchief. Her eyes sought his fearfully.

** Don't think, when I say that," she continued, " that
I say it with any idea of blaming you. You told me that
you loved Pauline when we were engaged, and of course
she was married then, and one did not expect — it never
seemed likely that she might be free. And now she is
free," Lady Mary went on, with a little break in her
voice, " and I am here, your wife, and I am afraid that
you love her still so much that what I am saying to you
must sound very, very unwelcome. Tell me, Henry. la
that so?"

Rochester was touched. It was impossible not to feel
the sincerity of her woTds. He sank on one knee, and
took her hands in hia.

^^ Mary," he said, *^ this is all so surprising. I did not
expect it. We have lived so long and gone our own ways,
and you have seemed until just lately so utterly content,
that I quite forgot that anywhere in this butterfly little
body there might be such a thing as a soul. Will you
give me time, dear? '*

"All the time you ask for," she answered. **0h! I
know that I am asking a great deal, but you see I am not
a very strong person, and if I give up everything eke, I
do want some<me to lean on just a little. You are very
strong, Heary," she added, softly.

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A SURPRISING REQUEST 247

He took her face between his hands, and he kissed her,

without passion, yet kindly, even tenderly.

" My dear," he said, " I must think this thing out.

At any rate, we might start by seeing a little more of one

another? "

** Yes ! " she answered shyly. ** I should like that."
" I will drive you down to Randagh to-monrow," he

said, ^^ alone, and we will have lunch there."

** I shall love it," she answered. " Good night ! ^
She kissed him timidly, and flitted away into her room

with a little backwaid glance and a wave of the hand.

Rochester stood where she had left him, watching the

place where she had disappeared, with the lode in his eyes

of a man who sees a ghost.

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CHAPTER XXXI

BETWEEN LOVE AND DUTY

ROCHESTER'S hansom set him down in Cado-
gan Street just as a new and very handsome
motor-car moved slowly away from the door.
His face darkened as he recognised Baton leaning back
inside^ and he ignored the other's somewhat exaggerated
and half ironical greeting.

" Lady Marrabel is * at home '? " he asked the butler,
who knew him well.

The man hesitated.

** She will see you, no doubt, sir," he remarked. ** We
had our orders that she was not * at home ' this after-
noon."

" The gentleman who has just left — ^" Rochester be-
gan.

" Mr. Saton," the butler interrupted. " He has been
with Lady Marrabel for some time."

Rochester found himself face to face with Pauline, but
it was a somewhat grim smile with which he welcomed her.

** Still fascinated, I see, by the new science, my dear
Pauline," he said. **I met your professor outside. He
has a fine new motor-car. I imagine that after all he has
discovered the way to extract money from science."

Pauline shrugged her shoulders.

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BETWEEN LOVE AND DUTY 249

** Those are matters which do not concern me,'* she said
— " I might add, do not interest me. You are the only-
man I know who disputes Mr. Baton's position, and you
are wrong. He is wonderfully, marvelously gifted."

Rochester bowed slightly.

" Perhaps," he said, " I judge the man, and not his
attainments."

" You are very provincial," she declared. " But come,
don't let us quarrel. You did not come here to talk about
Mr. Saton."

" No ! " Rochester answered. " I had something else
to say to you."

His tone excited her curiosity. She looked at him more
closely, and realized that he had indeed come upon some
mission.

"Well," she said, "what has happened? Is it ^"

She broke off in her sentence. Rochester stood quite
still, as though passionately anxious to understand the
meaning of that interrupted thought.

" It is about Mary," he said.

*' Yes? " Pauline whispered. " Go on. Go on, please."

" It is something quite unexpected," Rochester said
slowly — ^** something which I can assure you that her
conduct has never at any time in any way suggested."

" She wants to leave you? " Pauline asked, breath-
lessly.

" On the contrary," Rochester said, " she wants what I
she has never asked for or expected — something, in
fact, which was not in our marriage bond. She has been
going to this man Father Cresswell's meetings. She is

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950 THE MOVING FINGER

talking about our duty, about making the best of one
another."

Pauline was amazed. Certainly no thought of this
kind had ever entered into her head.

** Do you mean," she said, " that Mary wants to give
up her silly little flirtations, and turn serious? "

"That is exactly what she says,'* Rochester an-
swered. "I don't believe she has the least idea that
what she proposes comes so near to tragedy."

" What have you answered? " Pauline asked.

" We have established a probationary period," he said.
** We have agreed to see a little more of one another. I
drove her down to Ranelagh yesterday afternoon, and we
are going to dine tc^ether to-night. What am I to do»
Pauline? I have come to ask you. We must decide it to-
gether, you and I»"

She leaned a little forward in her chair. Her hands
were clasped together. Her eyes were fixed on vacancy.

" It is a thunderbolt," she murmured.

" It is amazing."

" You must go back to her."

Rochester drew a little breath between his teeth.

** Do you know what this means? " he asked.

" Yes, I know I " she answered. " And yet it is inevita-
ble. What have you and I to look forward to? Some-
times I think that it is weakness to see so much of one
another."

" I am afraid," Rochester said slowly, " that I would
sooner have you for my dear friend, than be married
to any woman who ever lived."

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BETWEEN LOVE AND DUTY asx

** I wonder," she said softly. ** I wonder. You your-
self," she continued, " have always held that there is a
certain vulgarity, a certain loss of fine feeling in the
consummation of any attachment. The very barrier be-
tween us makes our intercourse seem sweeter and more
desirable."

*' And yet," he declared, leaning a little toward her,
" there are times when nature will be heard — when one
realizes the great call/'

" You are right," she answered softly. " That is the
terrible part of it all. You and I may never listen to it.
We have to close our ears, to beat our hands and hide,
when the time comes."

" And is it worth while, I wonder? " he asked. ** What
do we gain ^

She held out her hand.

** Don't, Henry," she said — •"•dont,. especially now.
Be thankful, rather, that there has been nothing in our
great friendship which need keep you from your duty."

" You mean that? " he asked hoarsely.

"You know that I mean it,*^ she answered. "You
know that it must be."

He rose to his feet and walked to the window. He re-
mained there standing alone, for several minutes. When
he came back, something had gone from his face. He
moved heavily. He had the air of an older man.

" Pauline," he said, " you send me away easily. Let me
tell you one of the hard thoughts I have in my mind —
one of the things that has tortured me. I have fancied
— I may be wrong — but I have fancied that during

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2S2 THE MOVING FINGER

the last few months you have been slipping away from
me. I have felt it, somehow. There has been nothing
tangible, and yet I have felt it. Answer me, honestly.
Is this true? Is what I have told you, after all, some-
thmg of a relief? ''

She answered him volubly, almost hysterically. Her
manner was absolutely foreign. He listened to her prot-
estations almost in bewilderment.

" It is not true, Henry. You cannot mean what you
are saying. I have always been the same. I am the same
now. What could alter me? You don't belieye that any-
thing could alter me? '*

" Or any person? '* he asked.

" Or any person,** she repeated, hastily. " Go through
the list of our acquaintances, if you will. Have I ever
shown any partiality for anyone? You cannot honestly
believe that I have not been faithful to our tmwritten
compact? •*

" Sometimes,'* he said slowly, ** I have had a horrible
fear. Pauline, I want you to be kind to me. This has
been a blow. I cannot easily get over it. Let me tell you
this. One of the reascms — the great reason — why I
fear and dread this coming change, is because it may,
leave you more susceptible to the in^^ence of that per-
son.**

" You mean Mr, Saton? ** she said.

" I do,** Rochester answered. " Perhaps I ought not
to have mentioned his name. Perhaps I ought not to
have said anything about it. But there the whole thing
is. If I thought that any part of your interest in the

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BETWEEN LOVE AND DUTY 253

man's scientific attainments had become diverted to the
man himself, I should feel inclined to take him by the
neck and throw him into the Serpentine.*'

She said nothing. Her face had become very still, al-
most expressionless. Rochester felt his heart turn cold.

" Pauline," he said, " before I go you will have to tell
me that what I fear could not come to pass. Perhaps you
think that I insult you in suggesting it. This young
man may be clever, but he is not of our world — yours
and mine. He is a poseur with borrowed manners, •flam"
hoyanty a quack medicine man of the market place. He
isn't a gentleman, or anything like one. I am not really
afraid, Pauline, and yet I need reassurance."

**You have nothing to fear," she answered quietly.
**I am sorry, Henry, but I cannot discuss Mr. Saton
with you. Yet don't think I am blind. I know that there
is truth in all you say. Sometimes little things about him
set my very teeth on edge."

Rochester drew a sigh of relief.

** So long as you realize this," he said, " so long as
you understand, I have no fear."

Pauline looked away, with a queer little smile upon her
lips. How little a man understood even the woman whom
he cared for!

** Henry," she said, " I can only do this. I can give
you my hands, and I can wish you happiness. Go on
with your experiment — I gather that for the moment it
is only an experiment? "

" That is all," he answered.

*' When it is decided one way or the other," she con-

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354 THE MOVING FINGER

tinued, "you must come and tell me. Please go away
now. I want to be alone."

Rochester kissed her hands, and passed out into the
street. He had a curious and depressing conviction that
he was about to commence a new chapter of his life.

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CHAPTER XXXn

AT THE EDGE OF THE PEECIPICE

NAUDHEIM'S disapproval was very marked
and evident. He scoffed at the great bowl of
pink roses which stood upon the writing-table.
He pushed scornfully on one side the elegantly shaped
inkstand, with its burden of pens ; the blotting-pad, with
its silver edges; the piles of cream-laid foolscap. Most
of all he looked with scornful disapprobation at his
joung host.

Saton was attired for his morning walk in the Park.
During the last few weeks — or months, perhaps — a
touch of foppishness had crept into his dress — a fond-
ness for gray silk ties, a flower in his buttonhole, white
linen gaiters drawn carefully over his patent boots. Cer-
i»inly the contrast between this scrupulously dressed
young man and Naudheim, bordered upon the absurd.
[Naudheim was shabby, unbrushed, unkempt. His collar
w^as frayed, he wore no tie. The seams of his long black
i'rock-coat had been parted and inked over and parted
^gain. He wore carpet slippers and untidy socks. There
ivere stains upon his waistcoat.

From underneath his shaggy gray eyebrows he shot a
-contemptuous glance at his host.

** My young friend," he said, ** you are growing too
jfine. I cannot work here.'*

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as6 THE MOVING FINGER

" Nonsense ! " Saton answered, a little uneasily. " You
can sweep all those things oiF the writing-table, if they
seem too elaborate for you, and pitch the flowers out of
the window if you like/'

" Bah! *' Naudheim answered. " It is the atmosphere.
I smell it everywhere. This is not the house for thoughts.
This is not the house wherein one can build. My young
friend, you have fallen away. You are like all the others.
You listen to the tin music.'*

" I think," Saton answered, " that the work which I
have done should be my answer to you. We are not all
made alike. If I find it easier to breathe in an atmos-
phere such as this, then that is the atmosphere which I
should choose. We do our best work amidst congenial sur-
roundings. You in your den, and I in my library, can
give of our best.'* ^

Naudheim shook his head.

" You are a fool,** he said. " As for your work, it is
clever, fatally clever. When I read what you sent me
last month, and saw how clever it was, I knew that you
were falling away. That is why I came. Now I have
come, I understand. Listen! The secrets of science are
won only by those who seek them, like children who in
the time of trouble flee to their mother's arms. Never a
mistress in the world's history has asked more from man
than she has asked or has had more to give. She asks
your life, your thoughts, your passions — every breath
of your body must be a breath of desire for her and her
alone. You think that you can strut about the world, a
talking doll, pay court to women, listen to the voices

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THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE 257

that praise you, smirk your way through the days, and
all the time climb. My young friend, no ! I tell you no 1
Don't interrupt me. I am going to speak my say and
go/'

"Go?*' Satpn repeated. *' Impossible ! I am willing
to work. I will work now. I simply thought that as the
morning was so fine we might walk for a little time in the
sunshine. But that is nothing."

Naudheim shook his head.

" Not one word do I speak of those things that are
precious to me, in this house," he declared. " I tell you
that its atmosphere would choke the life out of every
thought that was ever* conceived. You may blind others,
even yourself, young man," he went on, " but I know.
You are a renegade. You would serve two mistresses. I
am going."

"You shall not," Saton declared. "This is absurd.
Come," he added, trying to draw his arm through his
visitor's, " we will go into another room if this one an-
noys you."

Naudheim stepped back. He thrust Saton away con-
temptuously. He was the taller of the two by some
inches, and his eyes flashed with scorn as he turned to-
ward the door.

*' I leave this house at once," he said. ** I was a fool
to come, but I am not such a fool as you, Bertrand
Saton. Don't write or come near me again until your
sham house and your sham life are in ruins, and you
yourself in the wilderness. I may take you to my heart
again then. I cannot tell. But to-day I loathe you. You

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258 THE MOVING FINGER

are a creature of no account — a foolish, dazzled moth*
Don't dare to ring your bells. I need no flunkeys to shov
me the way to the door/'

Naudheim strode out, as a prophet of sterner day»
might have cast the dust of a pagan dancing hall from
his feet. Saton for a moment was staggered. His com-
posure left him. He walked aimlessly up and down the
room, swinging his gloves in his hand, and muttering ta
himself.

Then Rachael came in. She walked with the help of
two sticks. She seemed gaunter and thinner than ever,,
yet her eyes had lost little of their fire, although they
seemed set deeper in the caverns of her face.

"Naudheim has gone,** she said. "What is wrong,.
Bertrand? "

" Naudheim is impossible,'* Saton answered. " He
came in here to work this morning, looked around the
room, and began to storm. He objected to the flowers, to
the writing-table, to me. He has shaken the dust of us
off his feet, and gone back to his wretched cabin in
Switzerland.''

She leaned on her sticks and looked at him.

" On the face of the earth," she said, " there does not
breathe a fool like you."

Saton's expression hardened.

" You, too ! " he exclaimed. " Well, go on."

" Can't you understand," the woman exclaimed, her
voice shaking, " that we are on the verge of a precipice?
Do you read the papers? There were questions asked
last night in the House about what they called these f or-

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THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE 259

ttme-telling establisfamenta. Yet everything goes on with-
out a change — by your orders, I am told. Oh, you fool I
Huntley knows that he is being spied upon. In Bond
Street, yesterday alone, three detectives called at differ-
ent times. The thing can't go on. The money that we
should save ready to escape at the aid, you spend, living
Kke this. And the girl Lois — you are letting her slip
out of your fingers."

" My dear Rachael," he answered, ** in the first place,
there is not a thread of evidence to connect you or me
with any one of these places, or with Huntley's office.
In the second place, I am not letting Lois slip out of my
fingers. She will be of age in three weeks' time, and on
her birthday I am going to take her away from Roches-
ter, whatever means I have to use, and I am going to
marry her at once. You think that I am reckless. Well,
one must live. Remember that I am young and you are
old. I have no place in the world except the place I make
for myself. I cannot live in a p^-sty amongst the snows
like Naudheim. I cannot find the whole elixir of life in
thoughts and solitude as he does. There are other things
— other things for men of my agfc"

^ You sail too near tiie wind. You are reckless*'*

** Perhaps I am," he answered. •^Life in ten years'
time may very well become & stranger place to those who
are alive and who have been taught the truth. But life,
even as we know it to-day, is strange enough. Rachael,
have you ever loved anyone? "

The woman seemed to become nerveless. She sank into
a chair.

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ate THE MOVING FINGER

^ Of the part I do not speak," she said — ^^ I choose
never to speak."

He took up his hat.

"No!" he remarked. "One sees easily enough that
there are things in jour past, RachaeL Sometimes the
memory may bum. You see, I am living through those
days now. The fire has hold of me, and not all the knowl-
edge I have won, not all the dim coming secrets, from
before the face of which some day I will tear aside the
veil, not all the experiences through which I and I alone
have passed, can help me to-day. So perhaps," he added,
turning toward the door, " I am a little reckless."

Rachael let him depart without uttering a word. She
turned in her chair to watch him cross the square. He
was drawing on his light kid gloves. His silk hat was a
mirror of elegance. His gold-headed rtick was thrust at
exactly the right angle under his arm. He swaggered a
little — a new accomplishment, and he had the air of one
who is well aware that he graces the groiind he treads
upon.

The woman looked away from him, and with a slow,
painful movement her head drooped a little until it
reached her hands. A slight shiver seemed to pass
through her body. Then she was still, very still indeed.
It seemed to her that she could see the end !

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CHAPTER XXXin

" YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN ME ! "

SATON deliberately turned into the Park, and saun-
tered along under the trees in the wake of a
throng of fashionable promenaders. He ex-
changed greetings with many acquaintances, and here
and there he stopped to say a few words. He noted, as
usual, and with a recurrence of his constant discontent,
the extraordinary difference in the demeanor of the
women and the men of his acquaintance. The former,
gracious and smiling, accepted him without reservation.
Their murmured words and smiles were even more than
gracious. On the other hand, there was scarcely a man
whose manner did not denote a certain tolerance, not un-
mixed with contempt, as though, indeed, they were will-
ing to accept the fact that he was of their acquaintance,
but desired at the same time to emphasize the fact that
he was outside the freemasonry of their class — a freak,
whom they acknowledged on sufferance, as they might
have done a wonderful lion-tamer, or a music-hall singer,
or a steeplejack. He knew very well that there was not
one of them who accepted his qualifications, notwith-
standing the approval of their womankind, and the
knowledge stung him bitterly.

Presently he came face to face with Lois, walking with

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96a THE MOVING FINGER

Vandermere. His face darkened for a moment. He had
expressed his desire that she should see as little of this
young man as possible, and here they were, not only
walking together, but laughing and talking with all the
easy naturalness of old acquaintanceship.

Saton drew a little breath of anger through his teeth
as he paused and waited for them. He recognised the
terms of intimacy upon which they were. He recognised
that between them there was something which had never
existed between Lois and himself, something which made
their friendship a natural and significant thing. It was
the freemasonry of class again, the magic ring against
which he had torn his fingers in vain.

They saw him. The whole expression of the girPs face
changed. All the animation seamed to leave her mann^.
For a moment she clung instinctively to h^ companion.
Afterwards she looked at him no more. She came to
Saton at once, and held out her hand without any show
of reluctance, yet wholly without spontaneity. It was
as though she was obeying orders from a superior.

•*Only this morning,*' he said, "the Comtesse was
speaking of you, Lois. She was so sorry that you had
not been to see her latdy.'*

^^ I will come this afternoon," Lois said quietly.

Vandermere, who had frowned heavily at the sound of
her Christian name upon Saton's lips, could scarcely con-
ceal his anger at her promise.

** I have never had the pleasure," he said, *' of meeting
the Comtesse. Perhaps I might be permitted to accom-
pany Miss Oiampneyes? "

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•*YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN ME I*' a6a

** You are very kind,*' Saton answered. ** I am sorry,
but the Comtesse is beginning to feel her age, and she
receives scarcely anyone* I am afraid that the days are
past when she would care to make new acquaintances.'^

'* In any case,'* Vandermere said, turning to his com-
panion, " weren't we going to Hurlingfaam this after-
noon? "

" We were," she said doubtf uHy , ^^ but I think ''

She looked towards Saton, His face was inexpressive,
but she seemed to read there something which prompted
her words.

^ I think that we must put off Hurlingfaam, if you
do not mind," she said to Vandermere. ^^ I ought to go
and see the Comtesse."

" It is very kind of you," Saton said slowly. ** She
will, I am sure, be glad to see you."

Vandermere turned aside for a moment to exchange
greetings with some acquaintances.

" Lois," Saton sctid in a low tone, ** you know I have
told you that I do not like to see you so much with Cap-
tain Vandermere."

'* I cannot help it," she answered. ** He is always at
the house. He is a great friend of Mr. Rochester's. Be-
sides," she added, raising her eyes to his, " I like being
with him."

" You must consider also my likes and dislikes," Saton
said. " Think how hard it is for me to see you so very
little."

" Oh, you don't care ! " Lois exclaimed tremulously.
" You know very well that you don't care. It is all pre-

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a64 THE MOVING FINGER

tence, thia. Why do you do it? Why do you make me so
unhappy?'*

" No, Lois,'* he answered, ** it is not pretence. I do
care for you, and in a very few weeks I am coming to
fetch you away to make you my wife. You will be glad,
then,'* he went on. ** You will be quite happy."

Vandermere turned back towards them. He had heard
nothing of their conversation, but he saw that Lois was
white, and he had hard work to speak calmly.

** Come,'* he said to Lois, '* I think we had better go
on. Good morning, Mr. Saton ! *'

Saton stood aside to let them pass. He knew very well
that Lois would have stayed with him, had he bidden it,
but he made no attempt to induce her to do so.

" Till this afternoon,'* he said, taking off his hat with
a little flourish.

" Hang that fellow ! " Vandermere muttered, as he
looked at Lois, and saw the change in her. "Why do
you let him talk to you, dear? You don't like him. I am
sure that you do not. Why do you allow him to worry
you?"

" I think," Lois answered, ** that I do like him. Oh,
I must like him, Maurice ! "

" Yes? " he answered.

" Don't let us talk about him. He has gone away now.
Come with me to the other end of the Park. Let us
hurry. . • ."

Saton walked on until he saw a certain mauve parasol
raised a little over one of the seats. A moment after-
wards, hat in hand, he was standing before Pauline.

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**YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN ME I'' 265

" Has he come? " she asked, as he bent over her
fingers.

Saton's face clouded.

" Yes ! '* he answered. " He came last night. To tell
you the truth, he has just gone away in a temper. I do
not know whether he will return to the house or not."

" Why? " she asked quickly.

Saton laughed to cover his annoyance.

" He does not approve of the luxury of my surround-
ings," he answered. " He declined to write at my desk,
or to sit in my room."

" I don't wonder at it," she answered. " You know
how he worships simplicity."

" Simplicity ! " Saton exclaimed. " You should see the
place where he writes himself. There is no carpet upon
the floor, a block of wood for a writing-table, a penny
bottle of ink, and a gnawed and bitten penholder only an
inch or two long."

Pauline nodded.

" I can understand it," she said. " I can understand,
too, how your rooms would affect him. You should have
thought of that. If he has gone away altogether, how
will you be able to finish your work? "

" I must do without him," Saton answered.

Pauline looked at him critically, dispassionately.

" I do not believe that you can do without him," she
said. "You are losing your hold upon your work. I
have noticed it for weeks. Don't you think that you are
frittering away a great deal of your time and thoughts?
Don't you think that the very small things of life, things

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•66 THE MOVING FINGER

tliat are not worth countuig, have absorbed a good deal
of your attention lately? *'

He was annoyed, and yet flattered that she should
speak to him so intimately.

"It may be so," he admitted "And yet, do you
know why I have chosen to mix a little more with my
fellows?''

" No ! '* she answered* " I do not know why.'*

" It is because I must," he saidj lowering lus tone.
" It is because I must see something of you."

The lace of her parasol drooped a little. Her face was
hidden now, and her voice seemed to come from a long
way off.

" That is very foolish," she said. " In the first place,
if my opinion of you is worth anything, I tell you
frankly that I would rather see yott with ink>stained fin-
gers and worn clothes, climbing your way up towcu'd the
truth, working and thinking in an atmosphere which was
not befouled with all the small and petty things of life.
It seems to me that since it amused you to play the young
man of fashion, you have lost your touch — some por-
tion of it, at any rate — upon the greater things."

Saton was very angry now. He W€is only indifferently
successful in his attempt to conceal the fact.

" You, too," he muttered. " Well, we shall see. Naud-
heim has brains, and he has worked for many years. He
had woik^d, indeed, for many years when the glimmer-
ings of this thing first came to me. He could help me if
he would, but if he will not, I can do it alone."

" I wonder."

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€t

YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN ME I** 267

" You do not believe in me,'* he declared*

" No/' she answered, ** I do not believe in you — not
altogether!"

Rochester and his wife drove down the Park. Saton
followed her eyes, noticing her slight start, and gazed
after them with brooding face.

"Rochester is becoming quite a devoted husband,"
he remarked, with a sneer.

" Quite," she answered. ** They spend most of their
time together now."

*' And Lady Mary, I understand," he went on, " has
reformed. Yesterday she was opening the new wing of
a hospital, and the day before she was speaking at a
Girls' Friendly Society meeting. It's an odd little place,
the world, or rather this one particular comer of it."

She rose, with a little shrug of the shoulders, and held
out her hand.

" I must go," she said. " I am lunching early."

" May I walk a little way with you? " he begged.

She hesitated. After all, perhaps, it was a -phase of
snobbery to dislike being seen with him — something of
that same feeling which she had never failed to remark
in him.

" If you please," she answered. *^ I am going to take
a taximeter at the Park gates."

" I will walk with you as far as there," he said.

He tried to talk to her on ordinary topicS: but he
felt at once a disadvantage. He knew so little of the peo-
ple, the little round of life in which she lived. Before
they reached the gates they had relapsed into silence.

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268 THE MOVING FINGER

" It 18 foolish of me/' he said, as he called a taximeter,
'* to come here simply in the hope of seeing you, to beg
for a few words, and to go away more miserable than
ever.'*

She shrugged her shoulders.

" It is certainly very foolish,*' she admitted.

" I don't see why," he protested, " you should disap-
prove of me so utterly .'^

" I do not disapprove,'* she told him, ** I have not the
right. I have not the desire to have the right. Only,
since you will have me tell you, I am interested in your
work. I like to talk about it, to hear you talk when you
are enthusiastic. It does not amuse me to see you come
down to the level of these others, who while their morn-
ing away doing nothing. You are not at home amongst
them. You have no place there. When you come to me
as a young man in Society, you bore me."

She stepped into the taximeter and drove away, with
a farewell nod, abrupt although not altogether unkindly.
Yet as she looked behind, a few seconds later, her face
was very much softer — her eyes were almost regretful.

" It may hurt him," she said to herself, " but it is very
good that he should hear the truth."

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CHAPTER XXXIV

THE man was harmless enough, to all appear-
ance — something less than middle-aged, pale,
and with stubbly brown moustache. He was
dressed in blue serge clothes, and a bowler hat a little
ancient at the brim. Neither his appearance nor his man-
ner was remarkable for any particular intelligence. Yet
the girl who looked him over was at once suspicious.

" What can I do for you? '* she asked a little curtly.

He pointed to the crystal upon the table, and held out
his hand.

" I want my fortune told,*' he said.

Violet shook her head.

** I do not attempt to read fortunes,*' she said, ** and
I do not, in any case, see gentlemen here at alL I do not
understand how the boy could have shown you up.*'

" It wasn't the boy's fault," the visitor answered. " I
was very keen on coming, and I gave him the slip. Do
make an exception for once, won't you?" he went on.
^* I know my hand is very easy to read. I had it read
once, and nearly everything came true."

Again she shook her head.

** I cannot do anything for you, sir," she said.

The man protested.

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270 fTHE MOVING FINGER

"But you call yourself a professional palmist,'* he
said, " and you add crystal gazing to your announce-
ment. I have seeu it being carried along on Regent
Street.''

" It is quite true," Violet said, " that I sometimes try
to amuse ladies, but I make no serious attempt to tell
fortunes. And as I said before, I do not even receive
gentlemen here at cdL I am sorry that you have had
your visit for nothing.'*

He rose to his feet with a shrug of the shoulders.
There was nothing to be done but to accept defeat. And
then, at the moment of defeat, something happened
which more than reconciled him to his wasted visit. The
door was opened abruptly, and Saton entered.

He realized the situation, or its possibilities, in an in>
stant. His bow to Violet was the bow of a stranger.

" You are engaged," he said. " I will come again. I
am sorry that your boy did not tell me."

"This gentleman came under a misapprehension,"
Violet answered. " I am sorry, but the same thing ap-
plies to you. I do not receive gentlemen here."

Saton bowed.

" I am sorry," he said.

The page-boy for whom Violet had rung, opened the
door. The first comer passed out, with obvious reluctance.
The moment that the door was closed, Violet turned to-
wards Saton with a little exclamation.

"Well," she said, "of all the idiots I ever knew.
Haven't I told you time after time that this place is in-
fested with detectives? We get them here every day or

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A WOMAN'S TONGUE ayi

wo, trying td trap us, women hs well as mea^ And yet
you walk in as though the place belonged to you. The
one thing they are so anxious to find out is who is run-
ning this show.''

" I was a fool to come, Violet," Saton admitted, " and
I am going at once. You think, the&, that he was a de-
tective? •'

" I am sure of it," ihe answered. " I was sure of it,
from the moment he came in."

" I will go," Saton said.

*' Did you come to see me? " she asked, with a mo-
mentary softening in her tone.

Saton nodded.

" It must be another time," he said. ** I will not stop
now, or that man below will susped^"

**Whcn will our next evening b^ Bertrand?" she
begged, following him to the door.

** I'll send you a telegram/' he answered * — *^ perhaps,
to-morrow."

Saton descen^d the stairs quickly. On the threshold
of the door he paused, with the apparent object of light-
ing a cigarette. His eyes travelled up and down the
street. Looking into a shop-window a few yards away,
was the man whom he had found with Violets

He strolled slowly along the pav^nent and accosted
him.

" I beg your pardon," he daid* " Please don't think
me impertinent, but I am really curious to know whether
that young woman was honest or not. She refused to
read my hand or look into the crystal for me> simply be-

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aya THE MOVING FINGER

cause I was a man. Did she treat you in just the same
way?"

The detective smiled.

" Yes ! " he said. " She was very much on her guard
indeed. Declined to have anything to do with me."

" Well," said Saton, " I only went in for a joke. I'll
try one of the others. There's a wonderful lady in Ox-
ford Street somewhere, they tell me, with the biggest
black eyes in London. Good day, sir! "

Saton walked off, and entered a neighboring tea-
shop. From there he telephoned to Violet, who a few
minutes later appeared.

" Sit down and have some tea," he said. " I want to
talk to you."

" It's almost time, isn't it? " she asked, reproachfully. .

" Never mind about that just now," he said. " You
can guess a little how things are. Those questions in the
House upset the Home Secretary, and I am quite con-
vinced that they have made up their minds at Scotland
Yard to go for us. You are sure that you have been
careful?"

"Absolutely," she answered. "I have not once, to
man or woman, pretended to tell their fortune. I tell
them that the whole thing is a joke ; that I will look into
the crystal for them if they wish it, or read their hands,
but I do not profess to tell their fortunes. What I see I
will tell them. It may interest them or it may not. If it
does, I ask them to give me something as a present. Of
course, I see that they always do that. But you are quite
right, Bertrand. Every one of our shows is bein^f

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A WOMAN'S TONGUE 273

watched. Besides that fellow this afternoon I had two
detectives yesterday, and a woman whom I am doubtful
about, who keeps on coming.'*

" Three weeks longer," Saton remarked, half to him-
self. " Perhaps it isn't worth while. Perhaps it would
be better to close up now.'*

'* Only three weeks? " Violet asked eagerly, '* Ber-
trand, what are you going to do then.'^ What is going to
become of me?"

Saton patted her on the hand.

" I will tell you a little later on," he said. " Every-
thing will be arranged all right. The only thing I am
wondering about is whether it wouldn't be better to close
up at once,"

" They've got a big piece of business on at the office,"
she remarked,

Saton frowned.

" I know it," he answered. " It's a dangerous piece of
business, too. It's blackmail, pure and simple. I wonder
Huntley dare tackle it. It might mean five years' penal
servitude for him."

" He'd give you away before he went to penal servi-
tude," Violet remarked, " You may make yourself jolly
sure of that."

Saton passed his hand across his forehead.

" Phew ! " he said. " How stuffy this place is ! Violet,
I wish you'd go round to Huntley, and talk to him. Of
course, he gets a big percentage on the returns, and that
makes him anxious to squeeze everyone. But I don't want
any risks. We're nearly out of the wood. I don't want to

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974 THE MOVING FINGER

be trapped now. And I've an enemy, Violet — a pretty
dangerous enemy, too. I fancy that most of this activity
at Scotland Yard and thereabouts lately, is due to him.**

** I'll go,'* she said, drawing on her gloves. " Shall I
telephone to you? *'

He nodded.

" Telephone me at home,'* he said. " Tell Dorrington,
or Huntley -—T whichever you see — that the affair must
be closed up — either dropped or settled. The risk is too
great. *My other work is becoming more and more im-
portant every day. I ought not to be mixed up with this
sort of thing at all, Violet/'

"Why are you?*' she asked.

** Money,'* he answered. " One must have money. One
can do nothing without money. It isn't that you or any
of the other places make such an amazing lot. It's from
Dorrington, of course, that the biggest draws come.
Still, on the whole it's a good income."

" And you're going to give it all up? " she remarked.

He nodded.

" I daren't go on," he said. " We've reached about
the limit."

" How are you going to live, then? " she asked curi-
ously. " You're not the sort of man to go back to
poverty."

Saton considered for a moment. After all, perhaps it
would pay him best to be straightforward with this girl.
He would tell her the truth. If she were disagreeable
about it, he could always swear that he had been joking.

" Violet," he said, " I will tell you what I am going to

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A WOMAN'S TONGUE ajs

do. It does not sound very praiseworthy, but you must
remember that my work, my real hard work, means a
great deal to me, and for its sake I am willing to put up
with a good deal of misunderstanding. I am going to
ask you to break off our engagement. I am going to
marry a young lady who has a great deal of money.*'

Violet sat perfectly still in her chair. For several
SQponds she did not utter a syllable. Her lips were a little
parted. The color seemed suddenly drawn from her
face, and her eyes narrowed. One realized then the per-
nicious effect of cosmetics. Her blackened eyebrows were
painfully apparent. The little patch of rouge was easily
discernible against the pallor of her powdered skin. She
was suddenly ugly. Saton, looking at her, was amazed
that he could ever have brought himself to touch her
lips.

"Ah!»' she remarked. "I hadn't thought of that.
You want to marry some one else, eh? "

Saton nodded.

" It isn't that I want to," he declared, ** only, as you
know, I must have money. I can't marry you without it,
can I, Violet? We should only be miserable. You under-
stand that?"

" Yes, I understand ! " she answered.

She was turning one of her rings round, looking down
at her hands with downcast head.

** You're upset, Violet," he said, soothingly. " I'm
sorry. You see I can't help myself, don't you? "

"Oh, I suppose so!" she answered. "Who is the
young lady? "

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376 THE MOVING FINGER

^ A Miss Lois CSiampneyes," Saton said. ^^ She is a
ward of a Mr. Henry Rochester, who has been my enemy
all along. It is he, I believe, who has stirred up these
detectives to keep watching us."

** Henry Rochester,*' she repeated. ** Yes, I remember
the name! He lives at the great house near Blackbird's
Nest.''

Saton nodded.

" He showed you the way to my cottage once there,"
he reminded her. " Well, I'm glad I've told you, Violet.
I hope you understand exactly how much it means. It's
Rachael's doings, of course, and I daren't go against
her."

** No, I suppose not ! " she answered.

They parted in the street. Saton called a taximeter
and drove off. Violet walked slowly down Bond Street.
As she passed the comer of Piccadilly, she was suddenly
aware that the man who had visited her that afternoon
was watching her from the other side of the street. She
hesitated for a moment, and then, standing still, de-
liberately beckoned him over.

" You are a detective, are you not? " she asked, as he
approached, hat in hand.

He smiled.

" You are a very clever young lady," he remarked.

" I don't want any compliments," she answered. ** Did
you come to my show this afternoon hoping just to
catch me tripping, or are you engaged in a larger quest
altogether? "

" In a larger quest," he answered. " I want some in-

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A WOMAN'S TONGUE 277

f ormation, and if you can give it me, I can promise that
you will be remarkably well paid.'*

** And the information? '* she asked.

** I want/' he said slowly, " to be able to connect the
young man who came in and pretended to be a stranger,
and who has just been having tea with you — I mean
Mr. Bertrand Saton — I want to connect him with your
establishment, and also with a little office where some
very strange business has been transacted during the last
few months. You know where I mean. What do you say ?
Shall we have a talk? **

She walked by his side along Piccadilly.

" We may as well,'* she said. " We'll go into the Caf 6
Royal and sit down.'*

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L

CHAPTER XXXV

^C^ OIS is late this morning/' Vandennere re-
marked, looking up at the clock.

' And on her birthday, too ! '* Lady Mary
declared. "Young people, nowadays, are so blasS.
Look at all those presents on the table for her, and here
the breakfast gong has rung twice, and there is no sign
of her."

Vandennere turned to his host.

**You haven't heard anything about that fellow
Saton?'' he asked. "You don't know whether he is in
the neighborhood or not? ''

" I have not heard," Rochester answered. " To tell
you the truth, if he has as much sense as I believe he
has, he is probably on his way to the Continent by now."

" I have an idea, somehow," Vandennere continued,
" that Lois is afraid he'll turn up to-day."

" If Lois is afraid," Rochester remarked, " let me tell
you in confidence, Vandermere, that I don't think you
need be."

** My dear girl ! " Lady Mary exclaimed, looking to-
ward the staircase. " We were just going in to break-
fast without you, and on your birthday, too ! "

Lois came slowly down the broad stairs into the hall.

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ON LOIS' BIRTHDAY 279

It was impossible to ignore the fact that she was pale,
and that she walked as one in fear. Her eyes were sunken,
cmd spoke of a sleepless night. Her manner was almost
furtive. She scarcely glanced, even, at the little pile of
packages which stood upon the table.

" How nice of you all to wait ! *' she said. " Good
morning, everybody ! ''

" Grood morning, €uid many happy returns to you ! *'
Lady Mary called out " Will you look at your pres-
ents now or after breakfast? '*

" I think after breakfast,'* she said. ** Are there €uiy
letters? "

** They are on the table,'* Rochester said.

She glanced them through eagerly. When she had
come to the last one, she drew a little breath of relief.
A tinge of color came into her cheeks.

** You dear people ! '* she exclaimed, impulsively. ** I
know I am going to have ever such nice things to thank
you for. May I be a child, and put off looking at them
until after breakfast? Do you mind, all of you? '*

** Of course not,'' Vandermere answered. ** We want
you to tell us how you would like to spend the day."

** I would like to ride — a long way away," she de-
clared, breathlessly. " Or the motor-car — I shouldn't
mind that. I should like to go as far away as ever we
can, and stay away until it is dark. Could we start di-
rectly after breakfast? "

Rochester smiled.

" You can have the car so far as I am concerned," he
said. " I have to go over to Melton to sit on the Bench,

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aSo THE MOVING FINGER

and jour aunt and I are lunching with the Delameres
afterwards. But if you can put up with Vandermere as
an escort!**

"Fll try,** she answered. "Dear Maurice, do order
the car for half-an-hour's time, will you? **

He laughed

** Why this wild rush? ** he inquired.

•* I don't know,** she answered. ** It is just a feding,
perhaps. I want to get away, a long way off, very
soon. I can*t explain. Don't ask me to explain, any of
you. You are sure those are all the letters? **

"Certain,** Rochester answered. "And, Lois,** he
added, looking up, " remember this. You speak and look
this morning like one who has fears. I repeat it, you
have absolutely nothing to fear. I am your guardian
still, although you are of age, and I promise you that
nothing harmful, nothing threatening, shall come near
you.**

She drew a little sigh. She did not make him any an-
swer at all, and yet in a sense it was clear that his words
had brought her some comfort.

" Don't expect us back till dinner-time,*' she declared.
^^ I am going to sit behind with Afaurice and be bored
to death, but I am going to be out of doors till it is
dark. I wish you did not bore me so, Maurice,** she
added, smiling up at him.

" I won't to-day, anyhow,** he answered, " because if
I talk at all I am going to talk about yourself."

As the day wore on, Lois seemed to lose the depression
which had come over her during the early morning. By

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ON LOIS* BIRTHDAY 281

luncheon she was laughing and chattering, talking over
her presents. Soon, when thej, were speeding on the road
again, she felt her hand suddenly held,

^^ Lois," her companion said, ^^ this is your birthday,
and you are a free woman, free to give yourself to whom
you will. It should be the happiest day of your life.
Won't you make it the happiest day of mine? '*

" Oh, if only I could ! ** she answered, with a sudden
return of her old nervousness. ** Maurice, if only I
dared r»

He laughed scornfully.

*^ Dear Lois,'' he said, ^^ you are impressionable, and
you have let yourself become the victim of some very
foolish fancies. You are a free agent. I tell you this
now, cmd I tell you the truth. You are a free agent, free
to give your love where you will, free to give yourself
to whom you choose. And I come to you first on your
birthday, Lois. You know that I love you. Give yourself
to me, little girl, and never anything harmful shall come
neap you. I swear it, on my honor, Lois."

She drew a little sigh of content, and her arm stole
shyly up to his shoulder. In a moment she was in his
arms.

" Don't be angry with me, Maurice," she sobbed, " if
I am a little strange just at first. I am afraid — I can't
tell you what of — but I am afraid."

He talked to her reassuringly, holding her hands —
most of the time, in fact, for the country was a sparsely
populated one, with his arm around her waist. And
then suddenly she seemed to lose her new-found content.

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282 THE MOVING FINGER

Her cheeks were suddenly white. She looked everjrwhere
restlessly about.

" What is the matter, dear? *' he asked anxiously.

*^ I thought that I heard something ! " she exclaimed.
"What 18 the time? ^

" Four o'clock,'' he answered, looking at his watch.

*^ Please tell the man to go back, straight back home,"
she said. " I am tired. I must get back. Please, Maurice ! "

He gave the chauffeur instructions through the speak-
ing-tube. The car swung round, and they sped on their
way through the quiet lanes.

" Dear Lois," he said, " something has come over you.
Your hands are cold, and you have drawn yourself away.
Now please be honest and tell me all about it. If you
have fears, all I can say is that you may dismiss them.
You are safe now that you have given yourself to
me, as safe as anyone in the world could be."

" Oh ! If I could believe it ! " she whispered, but she
did not turn her head. Her eyes sought his no longer.
They were fixed steadfastly on the road in front.

" You must believe it," he declared, laughing. ** I can
assure you that I am strong enough to hold you, now
that I have the right. If any troubles or worries come,
they are mine to deal with ! See, we will not mince words.
If that little reptile dares to crawl near you, I'll set my
foot upon his neck. By God, I will ! "

She took no notice of his speech, except to slowly
shake her head. It seemed as though she had not heard
him. By-and-by he left off talking. There was nothing
he could say to bring back the color to her

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ON LOIS' BIRTHDAY 283

dieeks, or the light to her eyes, or the confidence to her
tone. Something had happened — he could not tell what
— but for the moment she was gone from him. The little
hands which his still clasped were as cold as ice. It
seemed to him that they, were unwilling prisoners. Once,
when he would have passed his arm around her waist,
she even shuddered and drew away.

The car rushed on its way, turned into the great
avenue, and drew up in front of Beauleys. Lois stepped
out quickly, and went on ahead. In the hall several peo-
ple were standing, €uid amongst them Bertrand Saton!

Vandermere's face was dark as a thundercloud when
his eyes fell upon the young man — carefully, almost
foppishly dressed, standing upon the hearthrug in front
of the open fire. Rochester was there with Pauline, and
Lady Mary was seated behind the tea-tray. There was
a little chorus as the two entered. Lois went straight to
Saton, who held out his hands.

" Dear Lois,'* he said softly, " I could not keep awaj
to-day. I have been waiting for you, waiting for nearly
an hour.''

^^ I know," she answered. ^^ I came as soon as I knew.'^

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CHAPTER XXXVI

THE CHABLATAK UNMASKED

TIERE seemed for the next few minutes to be a
somewhat singular abstention from any desire
to interfere with the two people who stood in
the centre of the little group, hand-in-hand Saton, af t^
his iSrst speech, and after Lois had given him her hands,
had turned a little defiantly toward Rochester, #ho re-
mained, however, unmoved; his elbow resting upon the
broad mantelpiece, his face almost expressionless. Van-
dermere, too, stood on one side and held his peace, though
the effort with which he did so was a visible one. Lady
Mary looked anxiously towards them. Pauline had
shrunk back, as though something in the situation ter-
rified her.

Even Saton himself felt that it was the silence before
the storm. The courage which he had summoned up to
meet a storm of disapproval, began to ebb slowly away
in the face of this unnatural silence. It was dear that
the onus of further speech was to rest with him.

Still retaining Lois' hand, he turned toward Rochester.

" You have forbidden me to enter your house, or to
hold any communication with your ward until she was of
age, Mr. Rochester,'* he said. " One of your conditions
I have obeyed. With regard to the other, I have done as

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THE CHARLATAN UNMASKED 285

I thought fit. However, tonlay she is her own mistress.
She has consented to be my wife. I do not need to ask
for your consent or approval. If you are not willing
that she should be married from your roof, I can take
her at once to the Comtesse, who is prepared to receive
her.'*

*^ A very pleasant little arrangement," Rochester said,
speaking for the first time. ^* I am afraid, however, that
you will have to alter your plans.'*

•*I do not admit your right to interfere in them,**
Baton answered. ^^ If you continue your opposition to
my marriage with your ward, I shall take her away with
me this afternoon."

Rochester shook his head.

•* 1 think not," he answered.

•*Then we shall see," Saton declared. "Lois, come
with me. It does not matter about your hat. Your things
can be sent on afterwards. Come ! "

She would have followed him towards the door, but
Rochester, leaning over, touched the bell, and almost at
once two men stepped into the hall. One, Saton remem-
bered in an instant. It was the man whom he had found
with Violet — the man who was there to have his for-
tune told. The other was a stranger,. but there was some-
thing in his demeanor, in the very cut of his clothes,
which seemed to denote his profession.

Saton was suddenly pale. He realized in a moment
that it was not intended that he should leave the room.
*He looked toward Rochester as though for an explana-
tion.

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a86 THE MOVING FINGER

** My young friend,'* Rochester said, ** when you leave
this place, you will leave it, unless I change my mind, in
the company of those friends of mine whom you see
there. I don't want to terrify you unnecessarily. These
gentlemen are detectives, but they are in my employ.
They have nothing to do with Scotland Yard. I can
assure you, however, that there need not be ten minutes'
delay in the issuing of a warrant for your arrest."

** My arrest? " Saton gasped. " What do you mean? "

Rochester sighed.

** Ah ! " he said. " Why should you force me for ex-
planations? Ask yourself. Once before you have stood
in the dock, on the charge of being connected with cer-
tain enterprises designed to wheedle their pocket-money
from over-credulous ladies. You got off by a fluke, but
you did not learn your lesson. This time, getting off will
not be quite so easy, for you seem to have added to
your former profession one which an English jury sel-
dom lets pass unpunished. I am in a position to prove,
Bertrand Saton, that the offices in Charing Cross Road,
conducted under the name of Jacobson & Company, and
which are nothing more nor less than the headquarters
of an iniquitous blackmailing system, are inspired and
conducted by you, cmd that the profits are the means by
which you live. A more despicable profession the world
has never known. There are a sheaf of cases against
you. I will remind you of one. My wife — Lady Mary
here — left a private letter in the rooms of a Madame
Helga. The letter was passed on at once to the black-
mailing branch of your extremely interesting business.

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THE CHARLATAN UNMASKED 287

mid the sum of, I think, five hundred pounds, was paid
for its recovery. You yourself were personally respon-
sible for this little arrangement. And there are many
others. If all the poor women whom you have robbed,'*
Rochester continued, ^^ had had the common sense of my
wife, and brought the matter to their husbands, you
would probably have been a guest of His Majesty some
time ago.'*

Such fecu* as had at first drawn the color from
Saton's cheeks, and filled his eyes with terror, passed
quickly away. He stood upright, his head thrown back,
a faint smile upon his lips. He had some appearance,
even, of manhood.

** Mr. Rochester," he said, ** I deny your charges. I
have no connection with the fortune-telling establish-
ments to which you have alluded. I know nothing of the
blackmailing transactions you speak of. You have been
my enemy, my hopeless and unforgiving enemy. I am
not afraid of you. If this is your great blow, strike.
Let me be arrested. I will answer everything. After-
wardis, you and I will have our reckoning. Lois,'' he
added, turning to her, " you do not believe — say that
you do not believe these things."

** I — do — not — believe — • them — Bertrand," she
answered slowly.

** You will come with me? "

"I — will — come — with — you," she echoed.

"By God, sir, she shan't!" cried Vandermere.
" Take your hands off her, sir, or you shall learn how
mountebanks like yourself should be treated."

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288 THE MOVING FINGER

Saton struck him full in the face, sa that losing for
a moment his balance upon the slippery floor, Yander^
mere nearly fell. In a moment he recovered himself, how-
ever. There was a struggle which did not last half-a-
dozen seconds. He lifted Saton off his feet and shook
him, till it seemed as though his limbs were cracking.
Then he threw him away.

Rochester stepped forward to interfere.

" Enough of this, Vandermere,** he said sternly. " Re-
member that the fellow's career is over. He may try to
bluff it out, but he is done for. I have proofs enough
to send him to prison a dozen times over.''

Saton rose slowly to his feet. Unconsciously his fingers
straightened his tie. He knew very well that life — or
rather the things which life meant for him — was over.
He had only one desire — the desire of the bom poseur
— to extricate himself from his present position with
something which might, at any rate, seem like dignity.

"Do I understand," he asked Rochester, "that my
departure from this house is forbidden? "

Rochester shook his head.

" No ! " he answered. " For what you are, for the ig-
noble creature that you have become, I accept a certain
amount of responsibility. For that reason, I bid you go.
Go where you will, so long as your name or your pres-
ence never trouble us again. Let this be the last time that
any one of us hears the name of Bertrand Saton. I give
you that chance. Find for yourself an honest place in
the world, if you can, wherever you will, so that it be
not in this country. Gro ! "

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THE CHARLATAN UNMASKED 289

Saton turned toward the door with a little shrug of
the shoulders.

•* You need have no fear,** he said, " The country into
which I go is one in which you will never be over-anxious
to travel.'*

He passed out, amidst a silence which seemed a little
curious when one considered the emotions which he left
behind. Lois* pale face seemed all aglow with a sort of
desperate thankfulness. Already she was in Vandermere's
arms. And then the silence was broken by a woman's
sobbing. They all turned towards her. It was Pauline
who had suddenly broken down, her face buried in her
hands, her whole frame shaking with passion.

Rochester moved towards her, but she thrust him aside.

** You are a brute ! ** she declared- — ^^ a brute ! **

She staggered across the room towards the door by
which Saton had departed. Before she could reach it,
however, they heard the crunching of wheels as his car
swept by the front on its way down the avenue.

Rochester pushed open the black gate which led from
the road into the plantation at the back of the hill, and
they passed through and commenced the last short climb.
No word passed between them. The silence of the even-
ing was broken only by the faint sobbing of the wind in
the treetops, and the breaking of dried twigs under their
feet. They were both listening intently — they scarcely
knew for what. The far-away rumble of a train, the
barking of a dog, the scurrying of a rabbit across the
path — these sounds came and passed — nothing else.

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290 THE MOVING FINGER

They neared the edge of the plantation. There was
only a short climb now, and a gray stone wall. Rochester
passed his arm through his companion's. Her breath was
coming in little sobs.

" We shall be there in a moment, Pauline,^ he said.
" It is only a fancy of mine. Perhaps he is not here after
all, but at any rate we shall know."

She said nothing. She seemed to be bracing herself
for that last effort. Now they could see the bare rocky
outline of the summit of the hiU. A few steps more, and
they would pass through the gate. And then the sound
came, the sound which somehow they had dreaded. Sharp
and crisp through the twilight air came the report of a
revolver. They even fancied that they heard a little moan
come travelling down the hillside.

Rochester stopped short.

" We are too late,'* he said. ** Pauline, you had better
stay here. I will go on and find him.''

She shook her head.

" I am coming,*' she said. " It is my fault ! — it is my
fault!"

He held out his hand.

" Pauline," he said, " it may not be a fit sight for you.
Sit here. If you can do any good, I will call to you."

She brushed him aside and began to run. With her
slight start she outdistanced him, and when he scrambled
up to the top, she was already on her knees, kneeling
down over the crouching form.

" He is not dead," she cried. " Quick ! Tell me where
the wound is."

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THE CHARLATAN UNMASKED 291

Rochester stooped down on the other side, and Saton
opened his eyes slowly.

^^ I €un a bungler, as usual ! '' he said.

Rochester opened his coat carefully.

^^He has shot himself in the shoulder," he said to
Pauline. " It is not serious."

Saton pointed to the rock.

** Lift me up a little," he said. ** I want to sit there,
with my back to it. Carefully ! "

Rochester did as he was bid. Then he took his hand-
kerchief and tried to staunch the blood.

" I don't know why you came," Saton faltered — ^^ you
especially," he added to Rochester. " Haven't you had
all the triumph you wanted? Couldn't you have left me
alone to spend this last hour my own way? I wanted to
learn how to die without fear or any regret. Here I can
do it, because it is easier here to realize that failure such
as mine is death."

"We came to try and save you," said Rochester
quietly.

"To save you!" Pauline sobbed. "Oh! Bertrand, I
am sorry — I am very, very sorry ! "

He looked at her in slow surprise.

** That is kind of you," he said. " It is kind of you
to care. You know now what sort of a creature I am.
You know that he was right — this man, I mean — when
he warned you against me, when he told you that I was
something rotten, something not worth your notice.
Give me the revolver again."

Rochester thrust it in his pocket, shaking his head.

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aga THE MOVING FINGER

*^ My young friend, I think not," he said. ^^ List^.
I have no more to say about the past. I am prepared
to accept my share of the responsibility of it. You are
still young. There is still time for you to weave fresh
dreams, to live a new life. Make another start. No!
Don't be afraid that I'm going to offer you my help.
There was a curse upon that. But nevertheless, make
your start. It isn't I who wish it. It is — Pauline."

Saton looked at her wonderingly.

" She doesn't care," he said. " She knows now that I
am really a charlatan. And I needn't have been," he
added, with a sudden fury. **It was only that cursed
taste for luxury which seemed somehow or other to creep
into my blood, which made me so dependent upon money.
Naudheim was right! Naudheim was right! If only I
had stayed with him ! If only I had believed in him ! "

" It is not too late," she whispered, stooping low over
him. " Be a man, Bertrand. Take up your work where
you left it, and have done with the other things. This
slipping away over the edge, slipping into Eternity, is
the trick of cowards. For my sake, Bertrand ! "

He half closed his eyes. Rochester was busy still with
his shoulder, and the pain made him faint.

" Go back to Naudheim," she whispered. ** Start life
from the very bottom rung, if he will have it so. Don't
be afraid of failure. Keep your hands tight upon the
ladder, and your eyes turned toward Heaven. Oh ! You
can climb if you will, Bertrand. You can climb, I am
sure. Don't look down. Don't pause. Be satisfied with
nothing less than the great things. For my sake, Ber-

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THE CHARLATAN UNMASKED 293

trand! My thoughts will follow you. My heart will be
with you. Promise ! "

** I promise,*' he murmured.

His head sank back. He was half unconscious.

" We will stay with him for a moment,*' Rochester
whispered. **As soon as he comes to, I will carry him
down to the car."

In a moment or two he opened his eyes. His lips
moved, but he was half delirious.

" Anything but failure ! '' he muttered to himself, with
a little groan. " Death, if you will — a touch of the
finger, a stroke too far to seaward. Oh! death is easy
enough ! Death is easy, and failure is hard ! "

Her lips touched his forehead.

" Don't believe it, dear," she whispered. " There is no
real failure if only the spirit is brave. The dead things
are there to help you climb. They are rungs in the lad-
der, boulders for your feet."

He leaned a little forward. It seemed as though he
recognised something familiar amongst the treetops, or
down in the mist-clad valleys.

" Naudheim ! " he cried hoarsely. " I shall go to
Naudheim ! "

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EPILOGUE

THS ICAK

ABOUT half-way up, where the sleighs stopped,
Lady Mary gave in. Pauline and Rochester
went forward on foot, and with a guide in
front. Below them was a wonderful unseen world, un-
seen except when the snow for a moment ceased to fall,
and they caught vague, awe-inspiring glimpses of ra-
vines and precipices, tree-clad gorges, reaching down a
dizzy height to the valley below. Above them was a
plateau, black with pine trees. Higher still, the invisible
mountain tops.

** It is only a few hundred yards further,*' Rochester
said, holding his companion by the arm. ** What a coun-
try, though ! I wonder if it ever stops snowing."
** It is wonderful ! " she murmured. " Wonderful ! '*
And then, as though in some strange relation to his
words, the storm of whirling snow-flakes suddenly ceased.
The thin veil passed»away from overhead like gossamer.
They saw a clear sky. They saw, even, the gleam of re-
flected sunshine, and as the mist lifted, the country above
and beyond unrolled itself in one grand and splendid
transformation scene: woods above woods; snow-clad
peaks, all glittering with their burden of icicles and
snow ; and above, a white chaos, where the mountain-peak
struck the clouds.

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EPILOGUE — THE MAN 295

They paused for a moment, breathless.

** It IS like Naudheim himself,'* she declared. ** This is
the land he spoke of. This is the place to which he
climbed. It is wonderful!*'

" Come,'^ Rochester said. ** We must be up before
the darkness."

Slowly they made their way along the mountain road,
which their guide in front was doing all he could to make
smooth for them. And then at the comer they found a
log hut, to which their guide pointed triumphantly.

** It is there f he exclaimed — ^^ there where they live,
the two madmen. Beyond, you see, is tiie village of the
woodhewers.'*

Rochester nodded. They struggled a few steps up-
wards, and then paused to look with wonder at the Jcene
below. The one log cabin before which they were now
standing, had been built alone. Barely a hundred yards
away, across the ravine, were twenty or thirty similar
ones, from the roofs of which the smoke went curling
upwards. It seemed for a moment as though they had
climbed above the world of noises — climbed into the
land of eternal silence. Before they had had time, how-
ever, to frame the thought, they heard the crashing of
timber across the ravine, and a great tree fell inwards.
A sound like distant thunder rose and swelled at every]
moment.

** It is the machinery,'* their guide told them. " The
trees fall and are stripped of their boughs. Then they
go down the ravine there, and along the slide all the way
to the river. See them all the way, like a great worm.

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ag6 THE MOVING FINGER

Day and night, month by month — there is never a min-
ute when a tree does not fall."

Again they heard the crashing, and another tree fell.
They heard the rumble of the slide in the forest. The
peculiar scent of fresh sap seemed like a perfume in the
air. Then suddenly the snow began to fall again. They
could not see across the ravine.

The guide knocked at the door and opened it. Roches-
ter and Pauline passed in. • • •

There was something almost familiar about the little
scene. It was, in many respects, so entirely as she had
always imagined it. Naudheim, coatless, collarless, with
open waistcoat, twisted braces, and unkempt hair, was
striding up and down the room, banging his hands
against his side, dictating to the younger man who sat
before the rude pine table.

** So we arrive,** they heard his harsh, eager tones,
^^80 we arrive at the evolution of that consciousness
which may justly be termed eternal — the consciousness
which has become subject to these primary and irresistible
laws, the luiderstanding of which has baffled for so many
ages the students of every country. So we come ^^

Naudheim broke off in the middle of his sentence. A
rush of cold air had swept into the room. He thrust
forward an angry, inquiring countenance toward the
visitors. The young man sprang to his feet.

" Pauline ! ** he exclaimed.

He recognised Rochester, and stepped back with a mo-
mentary touch of his old passionate repugnance, not un-
mixed with fear. He recovered himself, however, almost

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EPILOGUE — THE MAN 297

immediately. Rochester gazed at him in amazement. It
would have been hard, indeed, to have recognised the
Bertrand Saton of the old days, in the robust and
bearded man who stood there now with his eyes fixed
upon Pauline. His cheeks were weather-beaten but brown
with health. He wore a short, unkempt beard, a flannel
shirt with collar but no tie, tweed clothes, which might
indeed have come, at one time or another, from Saville
Row, but were now spent with age, and worn out of all
shape.

Pauline's heart leaped with joy. Her eyes were wet.
It had been worth while, then. He had found salvation.

" We hadn't the least right to come, of course,*' she
began, recognising that speech alone could dissolve that
strange silence and discomposure which seemed to have
fallen upon all of them. *' Mr. Rochester and Lady Mary
and I are going to St. Moritz, and I persuaded them to
stay over here and see whether we couldn't rout you out.
What a wonderful place!" she exclaimed.

" It is a wonderful place, madam ! " Naudheim ex-
claimed glowering at them with darkening face. *^ It is
wonderful because we are many thousands of feet up
from that rotten, stinking little life, that cauldron of
souls, into which my young friend here had very nearly
pitched his own little offering."

** It was we who sent him to you," Pauline said gently.

" So long as you have not come to fetch him away,"
Naudheim muttered.

Pauline shook her head.

** We have come," she said, " because we care for him.

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398 THE MOVING FINGER

because we were anxious to know whether he had come
to his own. We will go away the moment you send us."

'* You will have some tea," Naudheim growled, a little
more graciously. ^^ Saton, man, be hospitable. It is
goat's milk, and none too sweet at that, and I won't an-
swer for the butter."

Saton spoke little. Pauline was content to watch him.
They drank tea out of thidc china cups, but over tiieir
conversation there was always a certain reserve. Naud-
heim listened and watched, like a mother jealous of
strangers who might rob her of her young. After tea,
however, he disappeared from the room for a few mo-
ments, and Rochester walked toward the window.

** It is very good of you to come, Pauline," Saton said.
^^I shall work all the better for this little glimpse of
you."

** Will the work," she asked softly, "never be done? "

He shook his head.

"Why should it? One passes from field to field, and
our lives are not long enough, nor our brains great
enough, to reach the place where we may call halt."

** Do you mean," she asked, " that you will live here all
your days?"

"Why not?" he answered. "I have tried other
things, and you know what they made of me. If I live
here till I am as old as Naudheim, I shall only be suffer-
ing a just penance."

"But you are young," she murmured. "There are
things in the world worth having. There is^a life there
worth living. Solitude such as this is the greatest pan-

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EPILOGUE— THE MAN 299

acea the world could offer for all you have been through.
But it IS not meant to last. We want you back again,
Bertrand."

His eyes were suddbily on fire. He shrank .a little
away from her.

" Don't ! " he begged. " Don't, Pauline. I am living
my punishment here, and I have borne it without once
looking back. Don't make it harder."

" I do not wish to make it harder," she declared, *' and
yet I meant what I said. It is not right that you should
spend all your days here. It is not right for your own
sake, it is not right "

She held out her hands to him suddenly.

** It is not right for mine," she whispered.

Rochester stepped outside. Again the snow had ceased.
In the forest he could hear the whirl of machinery and
the crashing of the falling timber. He stood for a mo-
ment with clenched hands, with unseeing eyes, with ears
in which was ringing still the memory of that low, pas-
sionate cry. And then the fit passed. He looked down
to the little half-way house where he had left his wife.
He fancied he could see someone waving a white hand-
kerchief from the platform of pine logs. It was all so
right, after all, so right and natural. He began to de-
scend alone.

Saton brought her down about an hour later. Their
faces told all that there was to say.

** Bertrand is going to stay here for another year,"
Pauline said, answering Lady Mary's unspoken ques-
tion. " The first part of his work with Naudheim will be

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300 THE MOVING FINGER

finished then, and we think he will have earned a vaca-
tion.»'

Saton held out his hands to Rochester.

" Mr. Rochester,'^ he said, " I have never asked you
to forgive me for all the hard things I have said and
thought of you, for my ingratitude, and — for other
things.'*

" Don't speak of them,*' Rochester interrupted.

" I won't," Saton continued quickly. " I can't. That
chapter of my life is buried. I cannot bear to think of
it even now. I cannot bear to come in contact with any-
thing which reminds me of it."

Rochester took his hand and grasped it heartily.

" Don't be morbid about it," he said. ** Every man
should have at least two chances in life. You had your
first, and it was a rank failure, 'f hat was because you had
unnatural help, and bad advice. The second time, I am
glad to see that you have succeeded. You have done this
on your own. You have proved that the real man is the
present man."

Saton drew Pauline towards him with a gesture which
was almost reverent.

" I think that Pauline knows," he said. " I hope so."

Early in the morning their sleigh rattled off. Saton
stood outside the cottage, waving his hand. Naudheim
was by his side, his arm resting gently upon the young
man's shoulder. A fine snow was falling around them.
The air was clean and pure — the air of Heaven. There
was no sound to break the deep stillness but the tinkle of

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EPILOGUE — THE MAN 301

the sleigh-bells, and behind, the rhythmic humming of
the machinery, and^the crashing of the falling trees.

^^ Naudheim is a great master," Rochester said.

Pauline smiled through her tears.

** Bertrand isn't such a very bad pupil.*'

THE END

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E. Phillips Oppenheim's Novels

He possesses the magic art of narratiom

—New York Herald.

Mr. Oppenheim never fails to entertain us.

^Boston Transcript

The author has acquired an admirable technique of
fhe sort demanded by the novel of intrigue and
mystery.— TA^ Dial, Chicago.

Mr. Ojppenheim is a past master of the art of con-
structing ingenious plots and weaving them around
attractive characters.— Loiwfon Morning Post

By an odds the most successful among the writers of
that class of fiction which, for want of a better term,
maybe called "mystery stones.*'— Ainslee's Magazine*

E. Phillips Ojppenheim has a very admirable gift of
telling good stories, thoroughly matured, brilliantly
constructed, and convincingly tol6i— London Times:

Readers of Mr. Oppenheim's novels may always
coimt on a [story of absorbing^intarest, turning on a
complicated plot, wodced out with dexterous crafts-
manship.— liferao' Digest, New York.

We do not stop to inquire into the measure of his
art, any more than we inquire into that of Alexandre
Dumas, we only realize that here is a bene&u:tor of
tired men and womai seddng r^axation.

— The Independent New York.

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£• Phillips Oppenheim's Novels

The Moving Finger.

A myitifying wtoary dealing with iiiieq>ected results of a weahfay
M.P/S experiment with a poor young man.

Berenice.

Oppenheim in a new vein— the stnry of the love of a novdist
of high ideals for an actress.

The Lost AmtMssador.

A straii^tforward myBtay tale of Paris and London, in whicha
rascally maitre d' hotel plays an important part

A Daus^ter of the Marionis.

A melodramatic romance of Palermo and En^^and, deaHng with
a rejected Italian lover's attempted revenge.

Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown.

A murder-mjrsteiy story rich in sensational incidents.

The niugtrious Prince.

A narrative of mjrsteiy and Japanese political intrigue.

Jeanne of the Marshes.

Strange doings at an Engjish house party are here set forth*

The Governors.

Aromance of the intrigues of American finance.

The Missioner.

Strongly dq;ncts the love of an earnest missioner and a worldly
hercMne.

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A Prince of Sinners.

An engrossiiig story of EnsJiah social and pditical life.

A Millionaire of Yesterday.

A gripping story of a wealthy West African miner.

The Man and His Kingdom.

A dramatic tale of adventure in South America.

Anna the Adventuress.

A suprising tale of a bdd deception.

Mysterious Mr. Sabin.

An ingenious story of a worid-startling international intrigue.

The Yellow Crayon.

Containing the exciting experiences of Mr. Sabin with a power*
ful secret society.

TheBetrairaL

A thrilling story of treachery in high diplomatic drdest
A Sleeping Memory.

A remarkable story of an unhappy girl who was deprived of
her memcnry.

The Afoster Mummer.

The strange romance of beautiful laobel de Sorrens.

Little, Brown, & Go.» Publishers, Boston

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E. Phillips Oppenheim's Novels

The Long Ann of Mannister.

A disdoctiy differcnt .Btoiy that deids'witii a wiuugnl man's
ingenious revenge.

As a Mboi Lives.

Discloses Hie mys t e iy surrounding tbtt fair oc CT gant of a ydlovr

The Avenger.

Unravels an intricate tam^ of ixilitical intrigue and private
revenge*

The Great Secret

Unfolds a stupendous intematioDal Gooqiiracy.

A Los' Leader.

A realistic romance woven around a striking peraoaality.
A Maker of History.

''E]q>lains" the Russian Baltic fleet's attack on tlie North Sea
fishing fleet

Enoch Strone: A Master of Men.

The story of a self •made man who made a fodish eariy marriage.

The Malefactor.

An amazing story of a man who suffered imprisonment for a
crime he did not commit

The Traitors.

A capital romance of love^ adventure and Russian intrigue.

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